The Pittsburgh Steelers have added a ton of expertise for the reason that finish of the 2022 season, and with the brand new inflow of free brokers mixed with Omar Khan’s haul from the 2023 NFL Draft, the staff’s depth chart ought to look considerably totally different getting into the 2023 season.
With that change will imply that some Steelers returning veterans will see their roles modified, decreased or eradicated fully in 2023.
That are the Steelers returners which can be most vulnerable to dropping their spot? Let’s break them down, beginning with why they’re on this checklist, however then a potential the trail to them holding their position intact in any case.
LT DAN MOORE JR.
The primary-round choose taking part in the place that you just manned the 12 months earlier than is rarely an excellent place for a soccer participant to be. That’s the place Dan Moore Jr. discover himself after the Steelers traded as much as get Broderick Jones within the first spherical of the 2023 NFL Draft.
Offensive linemen do typically take some time to regulate to a brand new degree of play, and so Moore won’t lose his job instantly, however the writing is definitely on the wall.
The perfect wager for Moore may be a shift to proper deal with, the place he may problem incumbent Chukwuma Okorafor, who additionally had has so-so leads to his time as a starter. Okorafor has a heavy $13 million wage cap hit, so he may very well be a horny choice to be launched or traded.
On the worst-case state of affairs, count on Moore to be the Steelers’ backup swing deal with in 2023.
LG KEVIN DOTSON
It’s powerful to see how Dotson will hold his beginning position at left guard, with proper guard James Daniels having fairly clearly out-played Dotson in 2022 and free agent Isaac Seumalo coming in to take over at a type of two spots.
The a technique ahead may be if the staff thinks that having Daniels, Dotson and Seumalo all on the sector collectively makes for his or her greatest three inside offensive linemen. Daniels has performed middle previously. That appears to be the one shot Dotson has at holding onto a beginning guard job.
Alternatively, with Nate Herbig additionally coming in as a free agent, it’s conceivable that Dotson may fall all the way in which from being a starter to not even being the highest backup. For that purpose, he stays a potential commerce chip for Khan.
C/G KENDRICK GREEN
As bleak as issues appears for Dotson, his former beginning mate Kendrick Inexperienced may be in a worse spot. The Steelers moved Inexperienced from middle to protect in 2022, with each events agreeing that the experiment to maneuver him to middle in 2021 was a failure.
Then got here the deluge of guards on the prime, with Seumalo and Herbig each seemingly assured of constructing the staff, and it’s exhausting to examine Inexperienced hanging onto a roster spot there, not to mention any type of taking part in position.
The one place it may be potential is a transfer again to middle, the place there isn’t an apparent pure backup to Cole after the departure of J.C. Hassenauer in free company.
WR/KR GUNNER OLSZEWSKI
Gunner Olszewski began out the 2022 season because the Steelers’ backup slot receiver and kick returner. He then misplaced that job to Steven Sims, solely to regain half of it again when Sims was promoted to the beginning lineup following the commerce of Chase Claypool.
Sims left by way of free company this offseason, so Olszewski is presumably again on the prime of the depth chart as a return man, however that may face competitors there from 2022 fourth-round choose Calvin Austin III, who’s returning after lacking all of his rookie season with a Lisfranc damage.
Within the slot, issues may be worse, with not solely Austin but additionally Anthony Miller getting back from damage to be a receiving possibility after which the Steelers swinging a commerce for Allen Robinson II.
Olszewski’s one shot appears to be to beat out Austin for the return job, after which use that as a strategy to get receiving reps.
DT ISAIAHH LOUDERMILK
The Steelers appeared to actually like Loudermilk, buying and selling a 2022 fourth-round choose to get a 2021 fifth-rounder and take him, regardless of the choose being out of left area when in comparison with most draft boards.
With accidents to Tyson Alualu and Stephon Tuitt, that appeared prescient, as Loudermilk performed 288 snaps in his rookie season. However final 12 months, with the signing of Larry Ogunjobi, that position was reduce by greater than half, all the way down to 116 snaps.
Ogunjobi and Cam Heyward return for 2023, and whereas Alualu and Chris Wormley are gone, the Steelers changed them with veteran free brokers Breiden Fehoko and Armon Watts. Then, the staff used a second-round choose on fellow Wisconsin alum Keeanu Benton within the 2023 NFL Draft.
Backup nostril deal with Montravius Adams is again as nicely, and Loudermilk performed no nostril deal with in any respect in 2022 after taking 11 snaps there in 2021. So the place does he match? It looks as if it will virtually take an damage to examine a job for Loudermilk in 2023.
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CB LEVI WALLACE
The Steelers have two veteran cornerbacks that entered 2022 because the staff’s beginning gamers on the surface, Levi Wallace and Ahkello Witherspoon. It appears possible that neither could have a beginning position in some unspecified time in the future in 2023, with free agent Patrick Peterson assuredly taking one slot and second-round choose Joey Porter Jr. more likely to take over the opposite sooner reasonably than later.
Witherspoon is a protection specialist that had an injury-ruined 2022, however was excellent in 2021 with the Steelers and 2020 with San Francisco. Wallace, however, was wholesome final 12 months whereas having a really middle-of-the-road season, and his strongest attributes are his runs protection and tackling potential.
These abilities extra intently align with what Porter brings to the desk, and are much less worthwhile in a number of cornerback schemes. Even when Witherspoon isn’t a full-time starter, it’s simple to see methods for the Steelers to make room for him towards multi-receiver sub packages.
The trail to taking part in time for Wallace is tougher to see and sure revolves round some mixture of damage, a decline within the 33-year-old Peterson, or Porter taking longer than anticipated to select up the protection.
Wallace and Witherspoon, who’ve similar $5 million cap hits, are additionally potential commerce chips for Khan, with one shifting out opening up important room for the opposite.
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