Steelers' Sean Davis adjusts to being away from the action in move from strong to free safety
What was widely opined over the summer for the Steelers defense was finally confirmed by one of the primary protagonists in it: Sean Davis is moving from strong to free safety.
While coach Mike Tomlin downplayed its significance by saying that labels don’t exist in regards to safety play in modern football, Davis acknowledged the transition isn’t without its adjustments.
“This is my first time really playing free safety, so I am more comfortable ‘in the box’ (at strong safety),” Davis said Friday. “But this is only Day 2. So I am going to continue to work out the kinks and try to get better, master different techniques I have to use to play free safety because it is a transition. But I can do it.”
Over the offseason the Steelers released four-year starting free safety Mike Mitchell and signed longtime Green Bay Packers strong safety Morgan Burnett . It was only natural to assume, then, that Davis was being moved back from the line of scrimmage and into more of a deeper alignment.
The Steelers played coy over spring workouts, though, patient to wade through all of their new safeties (Burnett, draft picks Terrell Edmunds and Marcus Allen and free-agent signee Nat Behre) to ensure they found the best combination.
Davis suggested he wasn’t even told he was moving until the team got to Saint Vincent. He said he embraces being the proverbial last line of defense.
“It’s something new to me, something new for us, so I am just using this time to develop my skills and get better so I can make the defense better,” Davis said.
“I have a good background of baseball playing center field, seeing the ball off the bat, judging things, so I feel like I am going to use all of that stuff to my advantage to track the ball, to not get tricked by savvy quarterbacks and just use my speed to fly around and get more interceptions.”
Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris at cadamski@tribweb.com or via Twitter @C_AdamskiTrib.
