{"id":31468,"date":"2025-11-11T22:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T22:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/31468\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T22:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T22:21:08","slug":"asante-samuel-jr-signs-with-steelers-what-does-he-bring-to-pittsburghs-secondary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/31468\/","title":{"rendered":"Asante Samuel Jr. signs with Steelers: What does he bring to Pittsburgh’s secondary?"},"content":{"rendered":"

About a week after being cleared to resume football activities, Asante Samuel Jr<\/a>. is signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>, according to ESPN<\/a>. The veteran cornerback had recently been cleared for football activities after undergoing spinal fusion surgery in April. \u00a0<\/p>\n

A 2021 second-round pick of the Chargers<\/a>, Samuel played in just four games last season after experiencing what he described as a stinger in both shoulders. Dr. David Okonkwo, a neurosurgeon for the Steelers, performed Samuel’s surgery.<\/p>\n

Samuel, 26, had two interceptions in each of his first three seasons with the Chargers. In the 2022 AFC wild-card round, Samuel had three interceptions and six pass breakups during Los Angeles’ loss to the Jaguars<\/a>. Overall, Samuel has 176 tackles and six interceptions in 50 career games (47 starts).<\/p>\n

\"player<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"team
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

What does Asante Samuel Jr. bring to the Steelers?<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh’s decision to sign Samuel makes sense given its recent injuries at the position. Starting cornerback Darius Slay<\/a> is in the concussion protocol after getting injured during the Week 9 loss to the Chargers. The Steelers, now 5-4, were already thin at cornerback after Jalen Ramsey’s<\/a> recent move to free safety<\/a> to replace DeShon Elliott<\/a>, who recently went on injured reserve.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Samuel will now work alongside Joey Porter Jr<\/a>. (who had an interception in Pittsburgh’s Week 9 win over the Colts<\/a>), emerging backup Brandin Echols<\/a>\u00a0and veteran backup James Pierre<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

NFL Week 11 Power Rankings: Belichick who? Drake Maye’s rise to stardom has Patriots ahead of schedule<\/p>\n

\n Pete Prisco <\/p>\n

\"NFL<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Samuel’s arrival to Pittsburgh comes just weeks after the Steelers traded for Kyle Dugger<\/a>, who has immediately stepped in at strong safety. Dugger received a game ball after playing in all but one of Pittsburgh’s defensive snaps against the Colts after signing just days leading up to the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Steelers also recently re-signed undrafted rookie Sebastian Castro<\/a>, who was just waived by the Buccaneers<\/a>. In a corresponding move, the Steelers released veteran safety and former starter Juan Thornhill<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Pittsburgh’s defense will have its work cut out for it against the Bengals and quarterback Joe Flacco, who threw for 342 yards and three touchdowns during Cincinnati’s 33-31 win over the Steelers back in Week 7.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About a week after being cleared to resume football activities, Asante Samuel Jr. is signing with the Pittsburgh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[19975,19978,19977,19976,19979,6224,3282,13239,3283,19983,3281,19984,13240,1418,19980,19981,73,75,74,1833,19982,1829],"class_list":{"0":"post-31468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-asante-samuel-jr","9":"tag-asante-samuel-jr-cleared","10":"tag-asante-samuel-jr-injury","11":"tag-asante-samuel-jr-return","12":"tag-asante-samuel-jr-steelers","13":"tag-brandin-echols","14":"tag-darius-slay","15":"tag-deshon-elliott","16":"tag-jalen-ramsey","17":"tag-james-pierre","18":"tag-joey-porter-jr","19":"tag-juan-thornhill","20":"tag-kyle-dugger","21":"tag-nfl","22":"tag-nfl-roster-moves","23":"tag-nfl-rumors","24":"tag-pittsburgh","25":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","26":"tag-pittsburgh-news","27":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","28":"tag-sebastian-castro","29":"tag-steelers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}