Steelers’ 6th-round pick Watts taking reps at safety
After four seasons playing cornerback for two of the best programs in college football, Ryan Watts is attempting to learn safety in the NFL.
He has 21 pro seasons — 238 NFL games — worth of mentorship among three players to look up to in that Pittsburgh Steelers position corps.
“I feel like I have some great vets to ask questions like DeShon Elliott and Minkah (Fitzpatrick) and (Damontae Kazee),” Watts said after an organized team activities session Thursday. “I’m really learning from the room.”
The Steelers’ second of two sixth-round picks, Watts played almost exclusively outside cornerback over four college seasons (two each at Ohio State and Texas). But Watts confirmed Thursday that he has been participating in team drills at safety over the first three days of OTAs at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.
“They still are open for me doing both,” Watts said, “but right now I am getting as much as I can at safety because safety is a lot more learning so just being able to get that down.
“Any time you move to corner, it’s just reacting and moving. After every practice I am still working at corner drills with some of the vets at corner. So just being able to stay ready, always being able to keep that in my back pocket — but also just learning a lot at safety, just learning the angles for the most part. I’m really just learning as much as a I can at safety — and then where they see me best fit.”
At safety, the Steelers have Fitzpatrick (84 career starts), Kazee (62 starts) and Elliott (50 starts).
Listed at 6-foot-3, 212 pounds, Watts would be a plussized corner. But he fits right in with the likes of Joey Porter Jr., Cory Trice and Darius Rush in the Steelers’ CB corps.
“I am definitely learning from them, too,” said Watts, who said the Steelers deploy their corners more like he saw at Texas (2022-23) than when he was at Ohio State (2020-21).
“Especially Joey Porter, seeing as how he’s another tall lanky corner. Just seeing how he excelled in his technique because that was one of the things I lacked in the last couple years. I felt like at Ohio State my technique was really good but that I kind of got away from it a little bit at Texas, just playing a little bit more off and not pressing as much. And just watching (Porter’s) film, just being able to master that technique I feel like I am already growing in that aspect.”
