{"id":258565,"date":"2025-10-29T11:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T11:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/258565\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T11:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T11:21:08","slug":"steelers-to-acquire-s-kyle-dugger-from-pats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/258565\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers To Acquire S Kyle Dugger From Pats"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Steelers saw starting safety DeShon Elliott<\/a> go down with a knee injury<\/a> in a Week 8 loss to the Packers. They\u2019re acting quickly to address the position. Pittsburgh will acquire safety Kyle Dugger<\/a> and a 2026 seventh-round pick from New England for a 2026 sixth-rounder, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n

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

This is the second trade of Tuesday for the Patriots, who previously sent<\/a> defensive end Keion White<\/a> and a seventh-rounder to the 49ers for a sixth-rounder.<\/p>\n

At 5-2 and atop the AFC East, the Patriots aren\u2019t in position to sell leading up to the Nov. 4 trade deadline. However, both Dugger and White fell out of favor this year under new head coach Mike Vrabel.<\/p>\n

A second-round pick of the Bill Belichick regime in 2020, Dugger quickly emerged as a key cog in the Patriots\u2019 defense. He started between 13 and 17 games in each season from 2021-24 and racked up nine interceptions during that span.<\/p>\n

The Patriots handed Dugger a four-year, $58MM extension<\/a> with $32.5MM in guarantees in April 2024, locking him up through 2027. Despite that expensive commitment, Dugger emerged as a trade candidate<\/a> late last summer when it became clear he was no longer a clean fit in the Patriots\u2019 defense.<\/p>\n

The Patriots held on to Dugger for the first couple months of the season, but he experienced a significant dip in playing time during the team\u2019s hot start. Before the trade, Dugger saw action in a meager 38.4% of defensive snaps while working behind starting safeties Craig Woodson<\/a> and Jaylinn Hawkins<\/a>. Pro Football Focus ranks Dugger\u2019s 2025 performance 62nd among 88 qualifying safeties. With Dugger gone, Dell Pettus<\/a> and Brenden Schooler<\/a> are now the Patriots\u2019 main reserves at safety.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old Dugger will now have a chance at a larger role with another division leader in Pittsburgh, which will place Elliott on IR, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com<\/a>. Elliott will miss at least four games, which left the Steelers in the market for immediate help at safety. Pittsburgh will face four straight postseason contenders \u2013 the Colts, Chargers, Bengals, and Bears \u2013 with Elliott on the shelf.<\/p>\n

The 4-3 Steelers have dropped two games in a row, largely as a result of an inability to stop the pass. Quarterbacks Joe Flacco<\/a> (Bengals) and Jordan Love<\/a> (Packers) combined to shred the Steelers for 702 yards, six touchdowns, and no interceptions over the past two weeks. Typically known for boasting a vaunted defense, the Steelers rank dead last in the league in passing yards per game allowed (273.3).<\/p>\n

Dugger will now join a Steelers safety group consisting of Juan Thornhill<\/a>, Chuck Clark<\/a>, and former Patriots teammate Jabrill Peppers<\/a>. He and Peppers often started next to each other in New England from 2022-24. Peppers has taken on a reserve role in his first season in Pittsburgh, but Dugger could regain a starting job now that he\u2019s headed to the Steel City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Steelers saw starting safety DeShon Elliott go down with a knee injury in a Week 8 loss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[20787,66914,1815,10669,1321,99,6182],"class_list":["post-258565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-deshon-elliott","tag-kyle-dugger","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-newsstand","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-sports","tag-transactions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}