Steelers Topics: Jalen Elliott Special Teams Study

Of the surprises on the Pittsburgh Steelers initial 53-man roster, S Jalen Elliott was atop that list for many. Today, I wanted to look at his NFL contributions to date.

Drafted in 2020 by the Detroit Lions, Elliott had no snaps in the preseason or regular season his rookie year. The only time he saw the field on defense in the regular season was 2021 with just 92 snaps. The thing that sticks out looking back were four missed tackles, with a poor 33.3-percent missed tackle rate.

Elliott also saw the field in 2021 on special teams, a five-teamer with 138 snaps. Included in these opportunities were three solo tackles and an assist, but two missed tackles, and a 44.9 PFF special teams grade. So, his regular season opportunities were quite some time ago, and had missed tackle issues on defense and special teams.

Where Jalen Elliott fared the best in the 2024 preseason was special teams, likely earning his roster spot. With this in mind, and his regular season opportunities covered, I wanted to dive deeper into his preseason special teams work since 2021.

Here’s how he fared in those four seasons, looking at special teams snaps (minimum of 15 per season) and PFF special teams grades:

The visual gives a sense of Elliott’s positive trend this 2024 preseason, offering well above average snaps (32) and 76.6 grade among the slew of qualifiers (3,002). This would likely be the facet of the game we’d see him if he earns any regular season opportunities, and great to see his best contributions this preseason since 2021.

Yes, injuries to others, including losing rookie S Ryan Watts long-term in the position room factor into the equation. But ultimately, Elliott withstood cutdown day, and it will be interesting to see if he can continue to provide positive play on special teams. That side of the ball was pretty concerning this preseason for Pittsburgh, so keeping capable players such as Elliott makes sense after the context from the study.

The concern is missed tackles, which showed up consistently on defense, regardless of preseason or regular season. His only regular season with special teams snaps was 2021 and featured two missed tackles. Optimistically though, only one missed tackle across four preseasons on special teams, so he was cleaner in those circumstances. However, that missed tackle did occur this preseason though.

It’s clear that barring injury, special teams would be the likely path if Elliott were to see the field in the 2024 regular season. That of course is no guarantee, with the end of the roster ever-changing game-to-game. It does seem more likely for Elliott to be inactive at the end of the roster. But it’s nice to know that if the Steelers feel so inclined, Elliott could potentially contribute there. If so, here’s to hoping we see a carry-over of good special teams play this preseason into games that matter in 2024.