Davis to free safety just a start to solving defensive issues

Davis to free safety just a start to solving defensive issues

By JIM WEXELL

LATROBE -- Sean Davis barked out calls as the new free safety in the Steelers' first practice of training camp Thursday.

That's just one fix to an overall defensive problem of communication issues that dogged the Steelers last season, particularly after Ryan Shazier went down with an injury.

Shazier won't return this season, but the hope is that a semblance of group intelligence will.

Just how does a team practice to improve its communication?

"By just rolling the ball out and doing just that," said Mike Tomlin. "Not taking anything for granted, general fundamental communication things that happen pre-snap, things that happen post-play, the quick reviews of route concepts or gap responsibility in the run game. All really good defenses do a good job of that, whether it's in pre-play or in the review fashion post-play."

The Steelers were a mess defensively after Shazier went down, and it wasn't just the secondary, where former strong safety Davis has been moved to the more leadership-oriented free safety spot and Morgan Burnett was signed to play strong safety.

The Steelers are also working free agent Jon Bostic in at linebacker. On Thursday he rotated in the base with Tyler Matakevich and replaced him on most snaps in the nickel alignment next to Vince Williams.

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It's time for him and Burns to come through.

I have thought from the onset that Davis best spot as a pro would be FS even mocked him in rd2 to the steelers in the mock draft contest here to be just that , now its time for him to put up and prove me right ... will he ? IDK I had more faith then than I do now but on paper I still like it .... we shall see it has to work otherwise our plan B is moving an aged S to play Free whos best pos is strong ( Burnett )

call me crazy but I still believe we messed up and should have signed Boston instead of Burnett ...

I do not believe Davis will be as Good as Boston at FS and Burnett is 29 years old with a laundry list of injuries in his past making one wonder how much longer can he be effective and just how much can he be relied upon ...

that said I hope ( and pray) the front office got this right

I do like how it says "just a start" because that's all this is. Davis joins Berhe, Dangerfield, and M.Golden fighting for that FS starter spot. Depending on where you put Edmunds in your initial 53 he may in that fight also. And is B. Allen definitely a CB at this point?

I think we will see Burnett start with Edmunds backing up the SS spot, at least in the beginning. M. Allen, SS, ILB, ST???

TC is going to be fun with all the new names and possibilities this year.

Let’s think about it this way...

Davis played some CB in college. He is better in space and/or in coverage (than he is near the LOS). And, he’s not the best tackler/not great at run support.

Sounds like a FS to me.

Really. Since day one, I have averred that Davis should have been the FS, and Mitchell should have moved to SS (since they were adamant about keeping Mitchell).

SUMMATION:
I think we just found our starting FS for the next 8 seasons.