Role in winning TD against aside, Steelers rookie Tre Norwood relished opportunity to start

Rookie seventh-round pick Tre Norwood repeatedly used words such as “grateful” and “blessed” to play every defensive snap of this past week’s Pittsburgh Steelers game.

It was the final meaningful snap among them, though, that was most regretful for the Steelers.

Norwood was part of a secondary that was duped and got beat by Mike Williams for a 53-yard touchdown with 2 minutes, 9 seconds left of the Los Angeles Chargers’ 41-37 victory.

It was a “welcome to the NFL, rookie” moment for Norwood, who was an every-down player in the pros for the first time. Norwood played free safety in place of All Pro Minkah Fitzpatrick, who was on the NFL’s covid-19 list.

CHARGERS ANSWER WITH A 53-YARD SCORE TO TAKE THE LEAD! #BoltUp

????: #PITvsLAC on NBC
????: https://t.co/JnzC2ZIHCv pic.twitter.com/AEhE558oSg

— NFL (@NFL) November 22, 2021

“We just had some miscommunication on the back end that we need to clean up,” Norwood said Wednesday of Williams’ long score. “At the end of things, whether the miscommunication happened or whatnot, I was the last line of defense, so I need to be better job on my end.

“But that’s something that I’ll take coaching from the coaches, clean up in the film room and learn from it, so it’s something we are going to get better on as a unit.”

Norwood has played 40% of the Steelers’ defensive snaps this season, a rather remarkable share of work for a player selected 245^th overall who had to impress in training camp just to make the team. Sunday was officially his third NFL start, although the others came in games in which Norwood was playing in a subpackage role that just happened to be on the field for the first snap.

Tre Norwood on playing every snap on defense this past week as a 7th-rd rookie DB for the Steelers pic.twitter.com/L9nYVtVy34

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) November 24, 2021

Norwood has played a variety of positions in the secondary this season. He is expected to revert back to his Mike Tomlin-dubbed “Swiss Army Knife” role Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, assuming Fitzpatrick is cleared to play.

“Being able to play every snap (against the Chargers), I didn’t overwhelm myself with it because I feel like I put the preparation in throughout the week,” Norwood said. “It is different, being back there playing every snap on defense, but it’s something that I look forward to as my career progresses so it’s something that I am happy I had the opportunity for, and I’m going too continue to put in the work.”

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