LATROBE, Pa. -- Artie Burns leaped with receiver Donte Moncrief deep down the middle of the field and tipped the ball into the air. Kameron Kelly, playing at free safety, packed the ball away and quickly turned upfield with the interception.
That play at Monday's training camp practice at Saint Vincent College has become more commonplace. But for Kelly, packing things up is nothing new. It's something that helped him get to this place with the Steelers.
An undrafted rookie out of San Diego State a year ago, Kelly signed with his hometown Cowboys. But at the end of training camp, the dreams of the Murphy, Texas native were shattered. He was released by the team.
His job after that? Working for Dallas Moving Services. One of the company's main clients? You guessed it, the Cowboys.
"I was at home working for the same moving company that works for the Dallas Cowboys after they cut me," Kelly told me Monday. "It was a humbling experience going back into that locker room. Now, I don’t have a locker. I’m going in to grab boxes and take them out to the truck and I’m seeing all of my old teammates. I was waking up at 5 in the morning, every morning, to make sure I got my workout in before work. Then I was working as a valet at night. Being on the other side of it does make it so that every day, you come out here and you don’t take it for granted."
That has been obvious for Kelly, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound defensive back.
He got an opportunity in the spring to play in the newly formed and now-defunct AAF, playing for the San Diego Fleet. Former Rams head coach Mike Martz, who was leading the Fleet, decided to try Kelly at wide receiver.
That lasted a few weeks until the team had a need at defensive back and Kelly was moved back to that side of the ball. He finished the season with nine passes defended and four interceptions in just six games as a defensive back. And when the league folded, he was one of several players signed by the Steelers.
But Kelly has hardly been just an afterthought with the Steelers. When Sean Davis missed some time in OTAs with a minor injury, it was Kelly the coaching staff turned to at free safety with the first-team defense. That continued Sunday when Davis suffered a finger injury that forced him out of that practice and Monday's session.
"He's shown good versatility," Mike Tomlin said of Kelly. "He's played some safety. He's played in some underneath sub-package positions. He appears to be a quick learner. He appears to have detail in multiple spots. That helps his cause and ours."
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Defensive backs coach Tom Bradley, right, shares a word with Kameron Kelly at practice Monday -- MATT SUNDAY / DKPS[/caption]
That attention to detail is something Kelly has always had. A high school quarterback, he needed it to get by playing football in the suburbs of Dallas, one of the best football hotbeds in the country.
"My whole life I’ve been somebody who has to learn on his feet," Kelly told me. "I pick things up quickly and don’t make the same mistake twice. I know I’m not the most athletic guy, but I’m athletic enough. The way I look at it, I don’t have to run a 4.3 (40-yard dash). If I’m going to the ball before it’s thrown, I don’t have that delay, that will help me."
As he mentioned, Kelly doesn't run a 4.3 40. He was more of a 4.6-second guy in the 40-yard dash. That led him to San Diego State rather than one of the many high-profile schools that regularly mine the Dallas area for talent.
But it also allowed Kelly an opportunity to get onto the field early with the Aztecs. He was one of just eight true freshmen to see playing time, then started 13 games as a sophomore at cornerback. He finished his career with nine interceptions and 15 passes defended, earning all-Mountain West first-team honors as a senior.
The NFL scouts, however, only saw that 4.6 speed, so he went undrafted. And then, he was sent packing by the Cowboys, literally.
He did, however, learn some things in the past year that are helping him now.
"I learned a lot of the basics of playing Cover-3, because that’s what we played a lot of," Kelly told me. "I learned to play deep-middle safety. I didn’t run too much nickel but I ran a lot of (Cover) 2, which in a lot of cases is like playing the nickel. I just improved my IQ of the game, basically."
And playing receiver in the pass-heavy offense employed by Martz didn't hurt, either.
"Being able to look at it from the other side and having Mike Martz as my coach, his offense is probably the basis of every passing offense in the league now," Kelly said. "Being able to look at it from there, now when I go back to safety, when I see a rub route from the slot guy, I know there’s only two other routes they can run off of that, things like that. Doing that really helped my IQ."
The Steelers are reaping the benefits.
Though the Steelers used nine draft picks earlier this year, none came at the safety position, where the team has a definite need behind Davis and Terrell Edmunds, its two starters. Jordan Dangerfield and Marcus Allen are returning players on the team's roster, while undrafted rookies Dravon Askew-Henry and P.J. Locke are also in the mix.
Kelly seems to have a leg up on the competition right now, though it's still early in the process. But this opportunity to run with the first-team defense is one Kelly is relishing.
"I’m not worried about what’s nice for me. I’m worried about what’s nice for the team," Kelly said. "I told coach Tomlin, no matter what he wants me to play, I’m going to learn it. I have the utmost respect for him because he told me straight up, if it ever gets to be too much, let him know. I haven’t gotten anywhere near that point. I just want to keep doing whatever he asks me to do."
Kelly has seen what life without football looks like, and he doesn't want to see it again.
He'd like to be done packing things for somebody else. He wants to unpack his bags in Pittsburgh.
"It for sure hurt, but it made it easy every morning to wake up at 5," Kelly said of his release by the Cowboys. "I knew (the NFL) was somewhere I wanted to be. Yes sir. I’m praying for it.”
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
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Steelers training camp, Latrobe, Pa., July 29, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS[/caption]
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