Throughout the offseason, the backup safety spot was seen as a potential Achilles' heel for the Steelers.
Minkah Fitzpatrick is a returning All-Pro player at free safety and there's a lot of potential in third-year strong safety Terrell Edmunds. But after those two, there was veteran Jordan Dangerfield, a special teams star, and, uh, a lot of unproven commodities, to put it kindly.
So, when the Steelers signed veteran Curtis Riley, a former starter for the Giants, to a one-year deal a couple of weeks ago, it was noteworthy.
Not nearly as noteworthy as Riley's play Friday in practice as the Steelers continued their training camp at Heinz Field.
Subbing for Edmunds, who had the day off while dealing with a minor injury, Riley made perhaps the play of they day when he closed on tight end Eric Ebron on a short underneath route over the middle. The ball was tipped at the line of scrimmage and Ebron had to wait an extra second for it to get to him. The moment it arrived, Riley was there to pull it out of the big tight ends hands for an interception he took the other way for a score.
"It was actually a good play by one of our defensive linemen that tipped the ball in the air," Riley noted after practice, giving credit where credit was due. "I just saw him go for the ball and I just ripped it out of his hand and made a play."
It shows Riley might fit right in with the Steelers defense, which led the NFL with 36 takeaways a year ago despite Edmunds failing to intercept a pass. Edmunds did get his share of interceptions in training camp last year, but failed to record an interception, force a fumble or recover a loose ball during a game.
Riley, who played for the Raiders in 2019, starting three games, had four interceptions in 16 starts for the Giants in 2018.
He was signed a couple of days after the Steelers also added veteran running back Wendell Smallwood to their roster. Mike Tomlin has liked what he has seen of both.
"More than anything, we were interested in increasing the level of competition in this environment," Tomlin said. "The way that you do that is you bring as many capable men in as you can. Both of the guys that you’ve mentioned have credible NFL résumés. They’ve proven that thus far. They have a veteran-like look to them, and both are being positive contributors to the days that we’re having. We look forward to continuing getting to know them and looking at ways that they could maybe carve out a niche for themselves within what we’re doing here."
For Riley, it was just a matter of finding a home. One of a number of veteran players who were left waiting in the offseason because of the pandemic, he just wanted a chance to show he can make a play.
Earlier in the practice, he also had made a play on special teams, diving to stop the ball from going into the end zone on a punting drill. The ball was downed at the 1.
Those are the kind of things that will get a player noticed -- in a good way.
"I don’t really care if I run with the ones, twos, or three, whatever," Riley said. "Whatever reps I get, I just have to do my job and out there communicating to everybody. So, it doesn’t really matter if I am with the ones, twos or threes."
The fact he's also capable of playing strong safety is noteworthy and could lead to him being the team's backup at both spots. It also could allow the Steelers the freedom to perhaps play Edmunds as a dime linebacker.
• Earlier this week, NFL.com reported the Competition Committee, on which Tomlin sits, had sent for a proposal to the league to investigate the possibility of playing the postseason in a bubble-type environment.
That would mean the seven teams from each conference would likely go to one site for the AFC and one for the NFC and those teams would be isolated to better keep teams from potentially being hit by a spate of positive COVID-19 tests.
It's worked well in the NHL and NBA playoffs.
I asked Tomlin, who donned a red golf polo shirt that read "Cleaning Ambassador" on the back to honor the stadium workers, what he thought of the idea.
"I’m definitely not opposed to it. I’m not opposed to anything that’s going to aid us through this process," Tomlin said. "It’s just we’ve got so many battles to fight between now and then. I think it’s kind of fruitless to engage in that type of discussion from an opinion standpoint. We’ve got more pressing challenges that lie ahead like traveling in Week 1 that probably need our attention."
• The Steelers have continued to hold plenty of live competition periods and will continue to do so -- at least for the time being.
Friday, that included groups being broken off to the four corners of the turf at Heinz Field. But the ones Tomlin watched the most were the running backs working against inside linebackers in what the Steelers head coach called an open-grass drill and the tight ends run blocking one-on-one against outside linebackers.
Had fans seen some of the open-grass drill, they might have held their collective breath. Early on, James Conner was matched against Devin Bush in this version of the Oklahoma Drill that doesn't involve blockers.
It's one-on-one with the linebacker and running back in a short area. The back can try to get around the linebacker. Or, he can go through him.
On one particular play, Conner and Bush collided. Hard.
"There’s risk in playing tackle football. We play tackle football," Tomlin said. "You have to practice like you play to a degree. Now, we’re thoughtful about the amount of it. We’re thoughtful about how we construct the scenarios. The bottom line is we will tackle in some form or fashion every day that we have full equipment on, and we will not apologize for that. That is the nature of our game."
As a side note, rookie Anthony McFarland showed he's more than simply a speed back. He gave one poor linebacker a dead-leg fake, stopping to freeze him, and then accelerated again to gain the edge. From there, it was over. That guy can run.
• Safety Antoine Brooks, a sixth-round draft pick, tracked the running backs well in the drill.
• If there was a question why the Steelers signed return man Ray-Ray McCloud, it became apparent immediately at practice. Diontae Johnson was out with an apparent calf injury.
With Johnson sidelined, that left Ryan Switzer and cornerback James Pierre as the only players, other than McCloud, as return men in the punting game. And Pierre, a rookie from Florida Atlantic, is a long shot to make this team.
• Tomlin is spending a lot of time with Ebron. When Ebron is hitting the blocking sled. Tomlin is there, watching closely.
In fact, any time the tight ends are being asked to block -- which is often -- Tomlin seems to be there in the ear of Ebron, who's not been known as much of a blocker in his previous two NFL stops at Detroit and Indianapolis.
The Steelers seem determined to change that. But it comes in baby steps.
Prior to the linebackers vs. tight ends run blocking drill, Tomlin yelled over to defensive coordinator/outside linebackers coach Keith Butler, "Let's sic 56 (rookie linebacker Alex Highsmith) on him for some run-blocking. We won't give him 90 or 48 just yet."
No, Ebron isn't yet ready for 90 (T.J. Watt) or 48 (Bud Dupree) just yet. But he is getting better just in the short time the Steelers have done it. It's doubtful he was ever asked to do much blocking before.
Don't misunderstand. Ebron isn't going to be confused with Heath Miller as a blocker anytime soon. And there's still an expectation the Steelers will still use whichever player doesn't win the starting right tackle spot as an extra blocker -- only the Seahawks used more six-man offensive lines than the Steelers last season -- but the coaching staff obviously wants to make Vance McDonald and Ebron interchangeable.
It's probably a good idea considering the length injury histories of both.
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