Steelers Name New Starting Safety

The Pittsburgh Steelers have a new name filling a starting spot at safety.

PITTSBURGH -- Injuries and a brutal suspension have put the Pittsburgh Steelers in a precarious spot with a thin safeties group as they look to close the regular season strong and complete a late push towards the playoffs. 

With their ranks at safety having been almost completely depleted, the Steelers have elevated veteran Miles Killebrew to starting strong safety on the depth chart for this week's game against the Seattle Seahawks on the road. 

Trenton Thompson, who's dealing with a neck injury, is listed as Killebrew's backup. Killebrew is also listed as the backup to Minkah Fitzpatrick, who is questionable to play against the Seahawks with a knee injury, at free safety. 

Killebrew has appeared in 127 games over his eight seasons in the NFL, but just five of those have been starts. He's an ace special teamer and a captain, but his experience on defense is limited. 

Killebrew has played 3,250 snaps in his career and 78% of them have come on special teams. He hasn't played more eight percent of the defensive snaps in a season since 2017 and his 7% share of the defensive snaps in 2023 is the largest Killebrew's taken since playing 8% of the snaps on defense for the Detriot Lions during the 2019 season. 

He's made 18 tackles this season, completed a safety, made one tackle for loss and he's blocked four punts since 2021, a mark that ranks second-best among all NFL teams over that same period. He's allowed completions on 72% of passes thrown his way this season but Killebrew has yet to be credited with a missed tackle during the 2023 campaign. 

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