2024 Steelers Exit Interviews: Ryan Watts and Damontae Kazee
The Pittsburgh Steelers 2024 NFL season has come to a close. Because the Steelers are among the 31 teams who did not finish fulfilling their ultimate goal, they are in the process of wrapping up their season and moving forward into 2025.
Since the Steelers conduct exit interviews with all their players, and the fact I have done these articles in the past, we thought we would do them yet again here at Steel Curtain Network. By outlining two players each day, we will be able to look at their season in retrospect as well as looking toward the future. Since Coach Tomlin has previously stated he starts his interviews with rookies and those heading into free agency, we will attempt to do the same to some degree. To start, we will pair the most recent draftees with another player at the same position (if possible) as we work through this process to eventually cover the entire Steelers roster.
Next up are safeties Ryan Watts and Damontae Kazee.
Ryan Watts
Position: Safety
Years with the Steelers: 1
Years in the NFL: 1
Contract Status: Signed through 2027
Contract Details: $885,671 salary cap hit for 2025. Would cost the Steelers $137,013 in dead money if released and save $748,658.
Games played in 2023: 0 regular season
Games started in 2023: 0 regular season
Snaps (regular season): None
PFF score: N/A (53.0 in preseason)
Notable stats: Watts had 11 tackles in three preseason games.
Notes: Yikes. That ended up being quite a scary injury to Ryan Watts in the Steelers final preseason game. When it comes to the neck, you just never know the severity of things. Although it was believed to be a stinger, Watts had surgery on his neck following the season. Because we don’t know a lot of what happens with players on the Reserve/Injured List, somewhere Watts was placed before the season started so there was no hope of a return, knowing the degree of the injury is difficult at this time. Hopefully Watts can resume his playing career and get in the mix with the Steelers safety room, but right now nothing is definitive.
Damontae Kazee
Position: Safety
Years with the Steelers: 3
Years in the NFL: 8
Contract Status: Free Agent
Contract Details: Contract expiring with no dead money.
Games played in 2023: 15 regular season
Games started in 2023: 1 regular season
Snaps (regular season): 289 (defense), 89 (special teams)
PFF score: 60.8 (64th of 98)
Notable stats: Kazee had 31 tackles, one interception, and two passes defensed in 2024.
Notes: I don’t know if I’m alone here, but I didn’t really notice Damontae Kazee much this season. He didn’t play that many defensive snaps compared to 2023 and had one interception early in the season against the Broncos. The only games where he played more than 50% of the snaps were Week 15 against the Eagles and Week 16 in Baltimore when DeShon Elliot was out. The emergence of Elliott made Kazee less of a factor which could be an indication he will not be back in Pittsburgh next season outside of a team-friendly deal.
Make sure you check back each day for another set of exit interviews. If you have missed any of the previous articles, they are listed here:
Troy Fautanu & Broderick Jones
Zach Frazier & Ryan McCollum
Roman Wilson & Van Jefferson
Payton Wilson & Patrick Queen
Mason McCormick & James Daniels
Logan Lee & Isaiahh Loudermilk
