Tag: Steelers roster

Steelers add WR, release CB in Sunday roster swap

The Steelers announced a pair of roster moves on Sunday.

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The Pittsburgh Steelers announced a pair of roster moves on Sunday. According to the team they have released cornerback Alexander Myers and replaced him on the roster with wide receiver DeAndre Thompkins.

Myers was already a longshot to make the final roster with a very deep and talented group of cornerbacks. Thompkins came into the league as an undrafted free agent out of Penn State. He was originally signed by the Philadelphia Eagles before playing for the DC Defenders of the now-defunct XFL.

It’s highly unlikely Thompkins will make the roster and this is just more maneuvering to keep healthy bodies in positions of need before the team is required to make final cutdowns.

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3 ways the media are underestimating the Steelers

The Steelers are much better than the media gives them credit for.

(Karl Roser / Pittsburgh Steelers)

Many in the media are selling the AFC as a two-team race. It is fair to look at the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens as the class of the conference but this doesn’t mean they are unbeatable. There are several teams capable of unseating them, first and foremost being the Pittsburgh Steelers. The national media isn’t giving the Steelers their due as a contender but we will.

Here are three ways the media are underestimating the Steelers.

Ben Roethlisberger can’t keep up with Jackson and Mahomes

If you listen to most NFL pundits, the consists of Mahomes and Jackson and everyone else is a significant number of notches below. While we appreciate the sentiment, these are still just mortal men. And as far as the Steelers go, more mortal considering the athleticism of that defense. But this is about Ben Roethlisberger. I know fans want to put Jackson and Mahomes into the HOF now but Big Ben is actually going in when he retires. With the arsenal Roethlisberger has, he can go score for score with every quarterback in the NFL.

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Steelers among NFL elite in players under 25 years old

Pittsburgh has one of the best young rosters in the NFL.

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With the state of the NFL, it is imperative that teams keep a steady influx of young talent on their roster. Free agency keeps teams in a constant state of turnover with veterans and often times the most competitive teams are the ones that get the biggest contributions from players under 25 years old.

ESPN decided to rank all 32 NFL rosters based on the level of talent under 25 and the Pittsburgh Steelers checked in at No. 6.

According to ESPN, the top tier of young talent on the roster includes linebacker Devin Bush, safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster.

But once you dig into the roster a bit you find several other non-rookies who are ready to make big contributions this season. Guys like running back Benny Snell, wide receiver Diontae Johnson and edge rusher Ola Adeniyi are three more players ready to step up in 2020.

With free agency about to his the Steelers like a ton of bricks next offseason, we will find out in a hurry just how good all these young guys are.

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NFL reduces training camp rosters to 80

The league and the players have agreed to cut back training camp rosters.

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The NFL and the NFLPA have been haggling the details of how to have a season for the better part of two weeks. It is a challenging process when you have something like professional football happening in the midst of a global pandemic. But it seems with almost no time left to talk about it, the two sides have come together to iron out the major details on how to make this work for all parties involved.

One of the biggest issues for the league had to do with the size of training camp rosters. Teams typically bring 90 players to training camp and use the preseason to trim the roster down to 53. But with concerns over COVID-19 and a zero preseason games, the value of such a large roster didn’t outweigh the potential risk.

This means teams will have to release players prior to the start of training camp to get their number down to 80. This means for 320 potential NFL hopefuls, their NFL dreams are on hold. These guys will continue to train and you can bet teams will be shuffling guys on and off of the roster during camp to account for injuries and as a way to evaluate more players within the confines of the rules.

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4 Steelers doomed for a fall in 2020

These Steelers could take a big step back in 2020.

Mandatory Credit: Philip G. Pavely-USA TODAY Sports

Every season we see a few Pittsburgh Steelers step up and make huge positive strides. But at the same time there are always a handful of players who backslide or fail to gain ground. This doesn’t mean they will end up a bust or totally let the team down but here are four guys we expect to take a step back in 2020.

OT Alejandro Villanueva

To be fair, Villanueva hasn’t shown improvement at left tackle in several seasons. He’s been in a holding pattern with flashes of greatness and the same number of lapses. Pittsburgh has two young and very talented tackles on the roster in Chuks Okorafor and Zach Banner so the margin of error for Villanueva this season is small. Villanueva is 31 years old and really doesn’t appear to have anything left in terms of improvement.

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Steelers get 6 players on PFF Top 101 of the decade

6 Steelers were among the best of the 2010s.

Mandatory Credit: Jim O’Connor-USA TODAY Sports

During the 2010s, the Pittsburgh Steelers were one of the top-performing franchises in the NFL. From 2010-2019 the Steelers made the playoffs six times, played in one Super Bowl and never had a record below .500. Much of this success falls on the play of some of the truly elite players to suit up for the Steelers during the decade. Six of those players made the Pro Football Focus Top 101 of the decade.

13-WR Antonio Brown

For all his problems that led to where Brown is now, you cannot deny the impact he had on the field during his tenure with the Steelers. Brown’s six-season stretch from 2013-2018 was the best any wide receiver has ever had in NFL history.

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4 Steelers veterans in danger of losing their roster spot after 2020 NFL draft

These four Steelers could find themselves on the roster bubble this training camp.

Mandatory Credit: Scott R. Galvin-USA TODAY Sports

The roster bubble is not the place to be. The bulk of the Pittsburgh Steelers 53-man roster is locked in place so there are only a handful of spots up for grabs this season. Here are four veterans on the roster bubble heading into whatever offseason workouts and training camp ends up looking like.

RB | Jaylen Samuels

There might not have been a player more disappointing in 2019 for the Steelers than Samuels. There was a golden opportunity for Samuels to come in and establish himself as a serious weapon in this offense and he couldn’t do it. Now, with the addition of Anthony McFarland Jr., there isn’t room for one running back. If I’m picking right now between Samuels and Kerrith Whyte, I’m keeping Whyte.

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Ranking all the Steelers positional units after the NFL draft and free agency

Which positional unit is on top and which one is dead last?

(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Last season’s version of the Pittsburgh Steelers was battered with injuries to a degree that the healthy players left, regardless of how good they were, just couldn’t keep up. But everyone is healthy now and the team has made some interesting offseason moves despite very limited salary cap space. How do they break down by position unit? Here are my rankings after the draft and most of free agency.

1-Outside linebacker

It’s hard to have the most explosive pass-rushing tandem in the AFC and not be at the top of this list. T.J. Watt and Bud Dupree both had breakout seasons in 2019 and are coming into this season with a ton of momentum. The addition of Alex Highsmith in the draft and the continued emergence of Ola Adeniyi just makes this group better.

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For better or worse: Breaking down the Steelers offense after the NFL draft

Which offensive positional units are better after the NFL draft?

(Photo by Bobby Ellis/Getty Images)

With the 2020 NFL draft in the books and very little salary cap space, the Pittsburgh Steelers have done about everything they can to set their roster heading into the team’s offseason program. Other than perhaps a late veteran cut the Steelers add late in the process, the team they have is who they will send into the regular season.

Let’s take a look at teach of the offensive positional units and see which are better and which are worse than the group that finished last season.

Quarterback

If we can safely assume Ben Roethlisberger will be back to start the season at 100 percent, this group is easily the most improved of any. 2019 was a wasted year with the rotation of Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges at quarterback. The Steelers passing offense was No. 31 in the league last year in yards and the team failed to produce even a single 300-yard passing game.

Better

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Steelers sign S John Battle to Futures contract

The Steelers announce another roster addition.

The Pittsburgh Steelers announced another roster move on Thursday. Pittsburgh has signed safety John Battle to a Futures contract for the 2020 offseason. Teams use a Futures contract to try to lock up players they are hoping have some potential ahead of the start of free agency and give them their 90-man roster for offseason workouts.

Battle played college football at LSU. He went undrafted but spent last season on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice squad. Battle should have a chance to work for a depth position among the Steelers safeties.

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