Jalen Ramsey impresses Steelers with leadership, willingness to do what’s best for team

He has known most of his teammates for less than 3¹⁄₂ months, and he joined a team with no shortage of respected veterans who hold sterling resumes.

None of that has stopped Jalen Ramsey from quickly establishing himself as a leader for the Pittsburgh Steelers, on and off the field.

“We’re lucky to have Jalen,” Cameron Heyward, the Steelers’ longest- tenured player and captain, said this week. “Jalen leads in a different way, but you see his energy week in and week out, it’s infectious.”

A three-time AP NFL All-Pro and seven-time Pro Bowl honoree, Ramsey joined the Steelers via a late-summer trade. His versatility, playmaking and aggressive style have been evident in myriad ways over the first half of the season. But arguably at no point did Ramsey show his value more than last weekend in the lead-up to — and during — a game against the AFC-leading Indianapolis Colts.

Jalen Ramsey did so well in his debut as a starting free safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers that he’ll continue to work exclusively at that position in the secondary.https://t.co/qiHa8Z7XkX

— Tribune-Review Sports (@TribSports) November 5, 2025

A longtime cornerback by trade, Ramsey volunteered to move to safety on a full-time basis for the matchup against the team that led the NFL in points and yardage. The night before the game, on the heels of a two-game losing streak in which the defense struggled mightily, Ramsey was asked by coach Mike Tomlin to address the team.

“He was really just talking about just bringing that swagger back,” cornerback Joey Porter Jr. said, “that Steel Curtain defense, that intensity, that arrogance that we need to walk around with, everybody on the team.

“He was like, ‘I’m going to bring that tomorrow; I need y’all to bring that, too.’ So once he set the tone like that, there was no other excuse but to play like that. I feel like everybody felt that on the defense.”

On the offense, too. Unsolicited, quarterback Aaron Rodgers — himself, a four-time NFL MVP, a leader of some repute — brought up Ramsey’s words after the upset win against the Colts.

Players from both sides of the ball said Ramsey’s talk had an impact.

“He’s got a lot of experience, NFL experience, world championship experience,” Tomlin said of Ramsey, a 10-year NFL veteran and Super Bowl champion with the 2021 Los Angeles Rams. “I’m thankful that he was willing to share that with his teammates.”

Tomlin also expressed gratitude not only in Ramsey’s willingness to switch positions midseason but the aptitude with which he handled those duties in the game. Tomlin termed Ramsey’s performance against Indianapolis as “an awesome job,” and credited Ramsey’s “relationship with the game” (of football).

Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin was likewise impressed.

“He did a heck of a job last week playing full-time free safety for us,” Austin said.

“He’s just a good football player.”

Though Ramsey has regularly moved around the defense and varied his deployment in-game throughout his pro career, he said Friday that the most recent time he played a full game at the position was his freshman year at Florida State.

That would have been 2013.

Though he’s frequently reiterated that he’s happy to line up at any position that might be in the best interests of the team, Ramsey politely pushed back on the idea that the transition was simple.

“It’s definitely *not* just like riding a bike”
—Jalen Ramsey on making a transition over a few days to fulltime safety last week pic.twitter.com/ToG7txfkrM

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) November 7, 2025

“It’d been a while; it’s definitely not just like riding a bike,” Ramsey said. “(It was) tough. But fun. I love football, so all pieces of it I’ll enjoy and try to embrace. I guess you could say maybe it brings a renewed energy for me just because playing corner for 10 years, you kind of learn the game and it kind of becomes same ol’, same ol’, same ol’, every day.

“Now, I’m in the meetings and … learning kind of new things to look at, different ways to look at the game from a safety’s point of view. But it’s been cool. It’s been real cool.”

Just about as cool as Steelers players and coaches have found the addition of Ramsey.

“Guys like him, man, they’re just football players,” Austin said. “They just love to play ball, and they love to win. Whatever you need to do to win, he’s all for. So it was no problem. There was no kickback. It was actually like, ‘OK, hey, what do you need me to do? Let’s go.’ ”