For a big game against one of the best teams in the NFL, the Pittsburgh Steelers are down a starting safety.

Good thing they have a couple in reserve.

DeShon Elliott is out for Sunday’s game at the Philadelphia Eagles because of a hamstring injury, it was announced Friday. That Elliott plays 86% of the Steelers’ defensive snaps portends a potential problem.

But the Steelers have a pair of defensive backs who have been longtime starters in the NFL and extensive experience doing so for the Steelers in Cameron Sutton and Damontae Kazee.

“When a guy does go down in our secondary, it is comforting to know we have played a lot of ball with the next man up,” safety Minkah Fitzpatrick said.

“So there is not a lot of communication (and) no lack of trust there.”

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) December 13, 2024

A free-agent signee in the offseason, Elliott quickly assimilated with the Steelers defense in general and at safety next to perennial All-Pro Fitzpatrick in particular.

But as recently as last year (as well as the second half of the 2022 season), that was Kazee’s role. Sutton, meanwhile, spent his first six seasons with the Steelers before joining the Detroit Lions last season. But Sutton is back and now playing a versatile role that allows him to plug in at various spots in the secondary.

In that sense, a situation such as this week with an injury to a starter is precisely why Sutton was re-acquired.

“When they say ‘(No.) 20, (go) in,’ or when certain personnel packages (are deployed), I will be ready,” Sutton said. “Ready for whatever it is.”

As Kazee explained it, in this era of subpackage specialization, the Steelers have packages built for Elliott, for Kazee, for Sutton and for all three at once and combinations of two of them to line up along with Fitzpatrick.

It’s not as if replacing Elliott is as simple as tapping the “next man up” on the shoulder at strong safety. Across the Steelers secondary, most of the players play different positions. According to Pro Football Focus, Elliott averages 10-20 snaps a game each at in-the-box safety, free safety and slot/nickel.

But Sutton frequently plays multiple snaps each game at those spots, too. And Kazee over his first two seasons with the Steelers averaged more than 10 snaps per game combined lined up at areas other than his given position of free safety.

“We prepare ourselves. We’re vets,” Kazee said. “It won’t be much different (without Elliott) than what we’ve saw in games the last few years. It’s not like we haven’t got reps in games. It’s not like we are going in blindfolded.

“We are gonna give them a lot of looks out there. It’ll be a little different out there (for the Eagles) this week. But we are going to enjoy it.”

Elliott has 62 starts in six NFL seasons. But Kazee, 31, is an eight-year NFL veteran of 103 games and 62 starts. Sutton, 29, is an eight-year NFL veteran of 106 games and 57 starts.

“We’ve got a second team here that could also go and start somewhere else,” Kazee said.

Not only is the deep Steelers corps of defensive backs experienced in the league, they are experienced in the system. Sutton (seven seasons) and Kazee (three) have spent plenty of time executing the scheme of coordinator Teryl Austin and working next to Fitzpatrick.

“We have guys we have who have played a lot and a long time and spent a lot of years in the system, too. It makes it easy,” Sutton said. “We have played different positions in the system. We have capable guys who can be interchangeable, and that helps in the ‘next man up’ mentality.”

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