Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back Kameron Kelly has already played quite a bit of football so far this offseason and he might wind up playing even more once NFL teams make their final roster cuts in early September. In short, Kelly seems to be primed to make a serious run at a Steelers roster spot the remainder of the summer as long he can stay healthy.
According to a Tuesday report by Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Kelly, who was signed by the Steelers in early April after the AAF ceased operations, took first-team reps at free safety at the start of the team’s second week of OTA practices on Tuesday. He probably did so due to regular starting free safety Sean Davis having to miss some time due to a minor injury of some sorts. As you can probably imagine, Kelly, who registered 14 total tackles, 9 passes defensed and 4 interceptions early this year with the San Diego Fleet of the now defunct AAF, was pretty excited about getting those important first-team reps on Tuesday.
“Of course, I was excited,” Kelly said. “It made me want to lock in more and make sure I made the most of my opportunity.”
After a college career at San Diego State that included him intercepting 10 passes and making 165 total tackles as both a safety and a cornerback, Kelly went unselected in 2018 NFL Draft and wound up signing immediately with the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent. After playing predominantly as a free safety with the Cowboys during the 2018 preseason, Kelly was ultimately waived. It’s worth noting, however that Kelly did also play some cornerback with the Cowboys and he knows his experience at multiple positions dating all the way back to his high school playing days could play in his favor in his attempt to make the Steelers 53-man roster this summer.
“I feel like I’m a Swiss army knife, whatever they want me to play, I’ll play,” Kelly said Tuesday per the Rutter report. “I told coach that I’ll punt if you want me to. If you want me to go back and play offense, I’ll do that.”
After Kelly originally made the roster of the Fleet earlier this year as a wide receiver, he was moved to the defensive side of the football by the team’s third game due to injuries. That move to cornerback with Fleet was a profitable one for Kelly as he started to make plays right away. He was even named the AAF Defensive Player of the Week for Week 5.
At the 2018 scouting combine, Kelly reportedly measured in at 6015, 204-pounds with 31 3/4-inch arms and 8 7/8-inch hands. He ran his 40-yard dash in 4.66-seconds, had a vertical jump of 33.0-inches and a broad jump of 10’0″. His short shuttle time was impressive at 4.28-seconds and his 3-cone-time was also not bad at 6.94-seconds.
It will now be interesting to track Kelly’s progress for the rest of OTAs and on into the start of training camp. For him to have a serious shot at making the Steelers 53-man roster out of training camp this year he’ll need to continue to display his position flexibility as a defensive back in addition to being a standout special teams player. The Steelers failed to draft a safety this year so thers definitely a chance that Kelly could wind up making the final 53-man roster as a backup behind starters Davis and Terrell Edmunds.
