{"id":55768,"date":"2025-12-09T02:51:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T02:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/55768\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T02:51:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T02:51:13","slug":"former-steelers-defender-joins-upcoming-opponent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/55768\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Steelers Defender Joins Upcoming Opponent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"categories\"><a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/steelers-news\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"788\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DSC_3760Kazee.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium tpd-force-16x9-aspect-ratio wp-post-image\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Steelers FS Damontae Kazee\" decoding=\"sync\" loading=\"eager\"   fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Pittsburgh Steelers safety Damontae Kazee warms up before a game against the Denver Broncos on Sept. 15, 2024. &#8212; Alan Saunders \/ Steelers Now\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Damontae Kazee is signing to the Detroit Lions practice squad, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/rapsheet\/status\/1998087511667855796?s=46\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">according to NFL Network insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Lions recently lost starting safety Brian Branch to a torn Achilles and will now rely on the former Steeler to help fill his void. It just so happens that Detroit has a matchup with Pittsburgh in Week 16, too, which gives Kazee enough time to get acclimated to his new team to potentially have an impact in the game.<\/p>\n<p>Kazee, 32, has been looking for his next opportunity since <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/browns-abruptly-part-ways-with-former-steelers-safety\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">abruptly parting ways with the Cleveland Browns<\/a> last month. He had signed with the Browns in May, but failed to record any statistics in four games.<\/p>\n<p>Kazee played for the Steelers from 2022-24, playing in 38 games and making 14 starts during his three-year tenure in the Steel City. <\/p>\n<p>During that span, he mostly served as a backup to starting free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, racking up 112 tackles, two fumble recoveries, seven passes defensed and five interceptions.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"788\" height=\"457\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/12-16-2023-Steelers-v-Colts-at-Lucas-Oil-Stadium-92.jpg\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Steelers S Damontae Kazee\" class=\"wp-image-57704\"  \/>Pittsburgh Steelers safety Damontae Kazee makes a tackle against the Indianapolis Colts on Dec. 16, 2023. \u2014 Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now<\/p>\n<p>The addition of strong safety\u00a0DeShon Elliott\u00a0and a more-healthy season for Fitzpatrick caused Kazee\u2019s role to decrease to 289 snaps in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh then replaced Kazee this past offseason with former Browns safety Juan Thornhill, who has since been released and joined the Jacksonville Jaguars.<\/p>\n<p>Kazee began his career as a fifth-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons. He spent the first four years of his career in Atlanta before joining the Dallas Cowboys in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>A native of San Bernardino, California,\u00a0Kazee has recorded 363 tackles, eight forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, 24 passes defensed and 17 interceptions in his professional career.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/damontae-kazee\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Damontae Kazee<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/detroit-lions\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Detroit Lions<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/pittsburgh-steelers\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/steelers\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers News Pittsburgh Steelers safety Damontae Kazee warms up before a game against the Denver Broncos on Sept.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[30865,11866,73,75,74,1833,1829],"class_list":["post-55768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-damontae-kazee","tag-detroit-lions","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-steelers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55768","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=55768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}