When the Steelers traded edge rusher Melvin Ingram to the Chiefs for a sixth-round pick back in November, there was always a bit of a risk that it could end up significantly benefiting Kansas City for the December matchup between the two teams.
Even though that appears to be the case now, Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin didn’t sound like a head coach who regretted the deal when asked about it in his Tuesday press conference.
When the deal went down, Tomlin said the Steelers prefer volunteers over hostages. He’s used that line before and said it again to describe Ingram’s feelings about Pittsburgh prior to the trade.
“We didn’t weigh their circumstances, no. We weighed our circumstances,” Tomlin said. “Not only the tangible element of our circumstances, but the intangible quality that makes up team. Like I mentioned when we moved him, we had an opportunity to get value for him. And so that was entertaining and interesting to us. But also, to be quite honest with you and blunt, Melvin no longer wanted to be here. And for us, we prefer volunteers as opposed to hostages.
“And we believe that is a formula that really allows us to come together in ways that you can’t measure — to do the things that we were able to do last week, to smile collectively in the face of adversity and do what’s required to get out of stadiums with necessary wins. And so that is more of a function of us and the things that we value and less about Kansas City, the things that they needed or the prospects of playing them later in the season.”
Having Ingram play the edge along with a healthy Chris Jones inside is one of the ways Kansas City’s defense has significantly improved since the club’s 3-4 start. In six games with three starts for the Chiefs, Ingram has 10 total tackles, three QB hits, a tackle for loss, and 1.0 sacks.
We’ll see if Ingram gets to take out some revenge against Pittsburgh or if it will be the other way around on Sunday.
