Less than three weeks after joining the Pittsburgh Steelers as part of a group of former AAF players, Kameron Kelly headed to UPMC Rooney Sports Complex to get in a workout.

Kelly was new enough to the NFL that he didn’t even know the offseason rules — the collective bargaining agreement bans players from using the facilities on weekends during certain periods of the spring.

“So, they told me to leave,” Kelly recalled earlier this week, “and … Coach (Mike) Tomlin is walking down the hall, and he yelled my name.

“I didn’t even know he knew my name, so I was like, ‘Who said that?’ ”

Sure enough, it was Tomlin. And true to form, the 13-year head coach delivered one of his go-to Tomlinisms.

“He’s like, ‘Kam, I don’t care by what means you got here. If you come here, you play, you work hard, you keep grinding, you can find yourself a spot on this team.’

“And, for me, that was enough.”

For Tomlin and the Steelers, Kelly has been more than enough to earn him an apparent spot on their team.

THURS #BreakfastWithBenz podcast w/ #Steelers safety Kameron Kelly—He has gone from a fringe roster candidate in the spring to a likely roster member already. How has that happened? https://t.co/IkLI3yNwXD @TribSports @TribLIVE

— Tim Benz (@TimBenzPGH) August 29, 2019

Kelly headed into the Steelers’ preseason finale Thursday seemingly with a roster spot locked up. Nothing is official, of course, but Kelly has likely taken more first-team reps than any player in the Steelers secondary since he signed, a phenomenon that unexpectedly began during organized team activities and has continued through minicamp, training camp and during preseason games.

True, part of Kelly’s status as a “starter” is attributable to multiple injuries to starting free safety Sean Davis over that time. But even when everyone is healthy, Kelly has taken practice reps and game snaps at safety, in the dime and even as the nickel slot DB.

It has been a remarkable rise for a player who was cut at the end of the training camp last year after joining the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent. Just five months ago, Kelly was one of the hundreds of players whose careers perhaps hit a low point after the Alliance of American Football suddenly suspended operations.

“I think about it, usually at night when I’m sitting at home not doing nothing or I’m watching the NFL,” Kelly said. “I reflect, and I just think about how far I have come. And I know this is nowhere I want to be; I want to just keep going further and further.

“I just try to use it as motivation. This time last year two weeks from now last year I was sitting at home not doing nothing, so it really (shows) you can go a long ways — and I just want to keep going further.”

Barring something unforeseen between now and the regular-season opener Sept. 8 at New England, Kelly’s role figures to be that as the top backup at both safety spots, with a likely role as an extra defensive back in the dime defense.

The Steelers also have experimented with hybrid packages that could include Kelly, who is 6-foot-2, 204 pounds and has a history of showing versatility and ball skills. Kelly played safety and cornerback for San Diego State, where he had 10 interceptions and 17 pass break-ups over his final three seasons.

Kameron Kelly is one of four players on the #Steelers 91-man roster who are holdovers from the defunct Alliance of American Football https://t.co/0pfkeTKkIj

— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) May 29, 2019

A three-interception game for the San Diego Fleet in March probably caught the eye of the Steelers the most. But since he has come to Pittsburgh, he has impressed coaches and teammates even more.

As veteran teammate Joe Haden noted, Kelly leads the team in interceptions in a tally of practice-reps over the past three months,

“I think very highly of Kam,” Haden said. “He’s just a football player; he’s really good at making plays at the ball. … He is obviously very smart; he understands the defenses.”

Kelly made his case confident that if he performed, he would make the team. Just as Tomlin told him during their first interaction in April.

“When I was with the Cowboys I felt like the moment I walked into the facility for training camp, it was already a wrap,” he said, “that I was going out there just trying to build my way up from a hole that I hadn’t even dug myself in. But now, I came here and everyone’s on the same playing field.”

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