Pittsburgh Steelers safety Deshaun Elliott is looking to get revenge on his original team, the Baltimore Ravens, when the AFC North rivals face off on Sunday. Meanwhile, he’s already taken shots at his other former team, telling the “Punch Line Podcast” on Wednesday that the 2023 Miami Dolphins were “soft.”
“I wasn’t able to play against Baltimore the way I wanted to,” Elliott said, anticipating the Ravens’ matchup with the Steelers on Sunday. “Because last year I played for a team that was very soft—…there were some tough players, but the majority of the team, there weren’t mentally tough guys. So, to be on a team that has a whole team of mentally tough players, it’s going to be Fun, man.”
Elliott started 15 games for the 2023 Dolphins, who started 11-4, only to lose their final three, including a playoff matchup with the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. One of those defeats was a 56-19 loss to the Ravens, for whom Elliott previously played four seasons.
Now with Pittsburgh, Elliott told former Ravens teammate Marlon Humphrey, who hosts the “Punch Line” show, that he enjoys the “winning culture” that Miami lacks. He said it’s a mirror of the culture he also experienced in Baltimore, where he started 22 games.
“I think I’m just very interested in the 2024 Dolphins for sure,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said when asked for comments later Wednesday. “And I think every team’s ability to be mentally tough in an NFL season is definitely being tested, and I think… our team played a tough game the last three weeks, and they ended up finding a way to win last week… Great, I said that Great podcast.”
Elliott isn’t the first player to question the Dolphins’ consistency in recent years. When signing with Miami this summer, former Buffalo Bills safety Jordan Poyer told reporters he was doing just that.
“Playing against this team over the last few years, it kind of makes you feel, ‘OK, if you top this team, it might collapse,'” he said, while admitting he hopes to help redefine the club. culture.
