Miles

Killebrew

Killebrew’s season is over. The safety is mainly a key special teams cog and has played just 141 defensive snaps over the past four years.

Austin has not yet returned to practice after injuring his shoulder in the Steelers’ Week 4 game against the Vikings. The team had a Week 5 bye and declined to put Austin on short-term injured reserve, which would have required him to sit out until Week 10. The Steelers face the Bengals on Thursday Night Football this week. The short week undoubtedly hurt Austin’s chances of returning in time. The Steelers also ruled out S Miles Killebrew (knee) and listed S DeShon Elliott (personal) and LB Malik Harrison (knee) as questionable. Elliott missed Weeks 3-4 with a knee injury.

Killebrew, a special teams ace, exited in the second quarter of Sunday’s game and did not return to the field. He was injured on a kick return play and remained down for several minutes, and Aaron Rodgers noted after the game that a “borderline unplayable” sod on the field may have been at least partly to blame for the injury. Tomlin said Killebrew would miss Week 7’s game against the Bengals, but by the look of things on Sunday and Tomlin’s quotes on Monday, this sounds like a multi-week injury that could perhaps turn into a season-ender for the 10-year vet.

Killebrew is a core special teamer for the Steelers, and has played over 59% of the special teams snaps for his teams in every season of his career. If you see him on the field on defense, serious injuries have hit or it’s garbage time. Still, he’s obviously valued.

The soon-to-be 28-year-old only played on special teams with the Lions in 2020. He’ll likely do the same with the Steelers.

Killebrew rarely saw the field last year, playing just 87 defensive snaps. His special teams value should be enough to secure his 2020 roster spot.

Killebrew has been a defensive stopper in limited snaps the last two weeks, recording nine tackles despite playing just 21 snaps total on defense. Several of those tackles have been big stops on third down. Still, Killebrew is expected to remain in his specialist role behind Glover Quin, Tavon Wilson, and Rafael Bush.

“I really think Miles is going to be a good player for us,” Quin said. Killebrew, the 111th pick in last year’s draft, played 158 snaps as a rookie, but made a ton of big stops on third downs and packs a big punch at 6'2/222. He can play both strong safety and some linebacker in sub-packages. With third safety Rafael Bush a free agent, Killebrew could be elevated to take his 511 snaps.

Killebrew has the size to be a linebacker (6'2/222) and played that position in certain sub-packages last year. But ultimately the Lions believe his future is at safety. “You can call him what you want to call him,” said Quinn. “He can play down near the box because of his size, but he’s a safety.” The 2016 fourth-rounder could push starter Tavon Wilson for snaps at strong safety this season.

Killebrew and Tavon Wilson operated as the first-team safeties. Glover Quin was absent and will bump one of those two from the lineup whenever he returns. Quin is a lock at free safety, but the other spot is up for grabs with Killebrew, Wilson, Alex Carter and Don Carey all vying for snaps.