Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
These four Steelers could all be gone next season.
When you look at the Pittsburgh Steelers picks in the 2023 NFL draft, you see that many of the picks were made with the 2024 offseason in focus. Here are four Steelers playing for their futures in Pittsburgh.
Rookie CB Cory Trice Jr. has been impressive at Steelers OTAs.
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Based on multiple reports by those in attendance at Pittsburgh Steelers OTAs, rookie cornerback Cory Trice Jr. has been one of the most impressive players on defense. As noted below by Steelers beat writer Chris Adamski, Trice’s teammates have been impressed by the seventh-round pick. This is a sentiment echoed by other writers at practices as well.
The selection of Trice came as something of a surprise given the Steelers had already used the No. 32 overall pick on Joey Porter Jr. But many pundits had a third-round grade on Trice so Pittsburgh had to view him still being on the board with the 241st overall pick.
Trice is a long, athletic press-man cornerback with exceptional ball skills. His physical tools alone puts him in a position battle with James Pierre for the fifth cornerback on the 53-man roster and given his upside, we have to think the Steelers would rather keep him than risk putting him on the practice squad.
I think it's fair to say, with enough confirmation/quotes/unsolicited comments from players, that Cory Trice has been a star of Steelers OTAs
Particularly Thur
Damontae Kazee: "I knew what he could do– I saw his highlights, all of them. But he showed it today: 3 PBUs and a pick."— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) June 1, 2023
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Pittsburgh is sitting on over $15 million in salary cap space.
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Despite having the busiest offseason in a very long time, the work isn’t done for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pittsburgh has worked hard to fill a multitude of roster needs and still finds a way to have some money to spend.
According to Over the Cap, the Steelers are sitting on $15,726,194 in salary cap space. This number includes the contract for recently-signed edge Markus Golden.
What are the Steelers saving cap space for? A couple of things come to mind. Pittsburgh still needs to add some pieces including depth at the offensive tackle and inside linebacker. Both positions could be on the radar.
But bigger than that, we are hopeful this is all to get edge rusher Alex Highsmith signed to a contract extension before the season starts. Highsmith is coming off a breakout season and if he does it again, he’s going to price himself out of the market for Pittsburgh.
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Mark Robinson got an interception in Tuesday’s OTA practice.
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The only inside linebacker on the Pittsburgh Steelers that returned from 2022 with starting experience is Mark Robinson. The coaching staff gutted out the rest of the group but Robinson remains along with several new teammates. But for Robinson, this is an opportunity and through just over a week of OTAs, he is doing just that.
Robinson got an interception in practice on Tuesday but after practice, he downplayed it in classic Steelers style.
“That was assignment football,” said Robinson. “The ball came to me and I made a play. Opportunities come, and you run with them. It was a ball-aware play. It came to me, and I took advantage of that opportunity.”
Robinson bided his time in 2022, playing primarily on special teams until the final two games of the season. With almost no positive production from the inside linebacker position, Pittsburgh plugged Robinson into the starting lineup to see what he could do. We saw an energetic, downhill player who got seven tackles and did enough to keep himself in the mix this season.
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The Steelers’ first week of OTAs are in the books.
On Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Steelers will kick off their second week of OTAs so we decided to look back at all the information that came out from the first week and give some of our takeaways.
The Steelers added 16 players who could help this season.
Between free agency and the 2023 NFL draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers added 16 players to the roster who could realistically contribute to the roster this season. We take you through all 16 additions and rank them from best to worst.
T.J. Watt says he distances himself from Cam Heyward early in the offseason.
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Everyone deals with failure or missing out on expectations differently. 2022 was a huge season of ups and downs for the Pittsburgh Steelers but ultimately was a massive letdown when the team missed the playoffs.
A big reason the Steelers missed the playoffs was because of the absence of linebacker T.J. Watt. Watt spoke to the media after the second day of OTAs and he talked about why he distances himself from his friend and teammate Cam Heyward after a failed season like 2022.
“I talked to him a good amount, but he definitely goes to dark places early in the offseason,” said Watt of Heyward. “I try to avoid him as much as possible, and not drag me any darker.”
It’s always interesting to see how active and visual players are just after a season like this. Some players, like Heyward fall off the grid completely while they go to these dark places and contemplate what comes next. Meanwhile, other guys never miss a beat and it seems that no matter how bad the season goes, it doesn’t affect them personally at all.
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The disparity in spending by the Steelers is over.
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The first full season of Omar Khan as the Pittsburgh Steelers general manager has been quite eventful. It is clear he is ushering in a new era where the front office is more proactive and aggressive to catch up to the rest of the AFC.
One way they have done this is by balancing out the salary cap resources between the offense and the defense. According to Spotrac, in 2022, the Steelers offense accounted for $56 million of the cap while the defense was almost $105 million. Additionally, the Steelers had a staggering $36 million in dead cap space.
Meanwhile in 2023, the Steelers are sitting at $108 million on defense and $106 million on offense. The amount of dead cap space is also down to only $13.7 million and that extra money got funneled into the offense.
Pittsburgh made multiple moves this offseason to not only upgrade the offensive line and invest in that side of the football but also made moves to replace at least four starters on defense and are saving cap on that side of the football.
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There are still decisions to be made at quarterback.
Last season the Pittsburgh Steelers completely rebuilt their quarterback depth chart as the franchise moved forward from Ben Roethlisberger. Let’s take a look at the quarterback depth chart after the 2023 NFL draft.
The Steelers save $4 million by releasing Ahkello Witherspoon.
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According to NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport, the Pittsburgh Steelers have informed cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon they plan to release him. Witherspoon joined the Steelers in 2021.
After signing Witherspoon, he gradually worked his way into the starting lineup in 2021 and actually led the team in interceptions that season despite only starting three games.
Witherspoon returned in 2022 and was slated to be the starting cornerback opposite Joe Haden and build on the previous year. But after a heavy workload in the first two games, he suffered a hamstring injury that cost him almost all of the rest of the season. He tried to return in Week Eight but was awful and was benched for the rest of the year.
The Steelers loaded up on cornerbacks in free agency and the NFL draft, making Witherspoon expendable. Releasing Witherspoon saves the Steelers $4 million against the cap and leaves just over $1.4 million in dead money on the books.
The #Steelers have informed veteran CB Ahkello Witherspoon that he’ll be released, source says. He started 7 games over the last two seasons.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 17, 2023
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