The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2025 offseason practices concluded in the middle of June and next up is the team’s annual training camp, which will get underway in the latter part of July at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe. Ahead of that, we will preview the team’s offseason roster three players at a time. This Steelers roster preview, which includes an outlook for every player, will be done alphabetically by last name to make it easy to follow. This series figures to exceed 90 players as the team can carry 91 players during the offseason due to the allowance of one international player designation.
The next three players we will preview ahead of Steelers 2025 training camp are Brandin Echols, Daniel Ekuale, and DeShon Elliott.
CB Brandin Echols: The Steelers signed Echols to a two-year, $6 million contract in March, and he was given a $1.83 million signing bonus as part of that deal. His salary cap charge for the 2025 season is just $2.085 million.
For his NFL career, Echols, who was selected by the New York Jets in the sixth round of the 2021 NFL Draft, has registered 122 regular-season tackles to go along with 16 passes defensed, five interceptions, and a fumble recovery. The Kentucky product has started 19 NFL games and played in 57 of them.
A versatile cornerback, Echols only started four games last season for the Jets on his way to registering 40 tackles, one tackle for loss, two interceptions, three passes defensed, and one fumble recovery. He logged 407 defensive snaps in 2024 with the majority of those coming as an outside cornerback. He logged 185 additional snaps in 2024 on special teams.
In coverage last season, Echols allowed 22 receptions on 36 total regular season targets for 295 yards and three touchdowns, according to Pro Football Focus. He is charged with missing nine tackles in 2024.
Outlook: It goes without saying that Echols should be on the 53-man roster this year. From there, his 2025 outlook is a little bit murky ahead of training camp getting underway.
Echols is expected to battle CB Beanie Bishop Jr., and perhaps another player or two, for the primary nickel-slot job this summer. Even so, Echols played most of his defensive snaps with the Jets last season as an outside cornerback. In stating all of that, Echols is versatile enough to play both outside and inside should either need arise.
Should Echols win the starting nickel job this summer, which is obviously far from guaranteed to happen, he would be on course to play a high percentage of defensive snaps in 2025. Even if he fails to win that starting job, he still should be expected to be a weekly active player for the defense.
Echols has quite a bit of NFL special teams experience so it’s reasonable to expect that he will play there to some degree during his first season in Pittsburgh.
Should Echols play considerably on defense in 2025, and should his play be well above the line on top of that, there could be a slight chance that the Steelers try to sign him to a contract extension next offseason just like they did recently with S DeShon Elliott.
DT Daniel Ekuale: The Steelers signed Ekuale to a one-year, $2.8 million contract in March and that deal included a $1.63 million signing bonus.
Ekuale entered the NFL in 2018 with the Cleveland Browns as an undrafted free agent out of Washington State. After spending his first two NFL seasons in Cleveland, Ekuale spent the 2020 season with the Jacksonville Jaguars, but mostly on their practice squad. He spent the past four seasons with the New England Patriots.
In total, Ekuale has played in 57 regular-season games with 21 starts. He has registered 91 total tackles, eight tackles for loss, nine quarterback hits, six sacks, one pass defensed, and one forced fumble in 1,643 regular-season defensive snaps. The 2024 season was a career one for Ekuale as a member of the Patriots. He started 16 regular-season games on his way to registering 52 combined tackles, two tackles for loss, three quarterback hits, and one sack.
Ekuale, who turned 31 in January, is regarded as a versatile defensive lineman as he has played up and down the line of scrimmage since entering the NFL. Most of his NFL snaps, however, have come with him lined up in the B gap.
Outlook: The Steelers had to address their defensive line depth ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft, especially after parting ways with veteran DT Larry Ogunjobi. While Ekuale wasn’t necessarily a name on a lot of people’s lips as a possible early offseason addition, he does fill a need overall, especially after seeing the team select two more defensive linemen during the draft.
Despite playing a career high 722 defensive snaps in 2024, Ekuale will likely be used in more of a reserve role in Pittsburgh, especially if the team’s first-round selection this year, DT Derrick Harmon, secures a starting defensive line job to start the regular season. Ekuale will likely filter into games in 2024 as a rotational player and thus he could see quite a few snaps every week.
A reliable tackler overall, Ekuale is a better run defender than he is a pass rusher. Thus, his value to the Steelers in 2025 might be more on early downs. There might be some concerns with Ekuale if he’s asked to play a lot of pass-rushing snaps in 2025 as he’s never been known to be a high-pressure producer. If, however, he can help the team’s run defense improve in 2025, he will have been a worthy one-year addition by the Steelers. He’s not a player the team likely wants to see play anywhere close to 50 percent of its defensive snaps in 2025.
S DeShon Elliott: The Steelers signed Elliott to a two-year, $6 million contract during the 2024 free agency period, a signing ended being an exceptional one based on how the veteran safety played last season. For the regular season, Elliott registered 108 total tackles, four tackles for loss, one interception, two forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries and six passes defensed. Elliott logged 823 total regular-season snaps on defense in 2024 with 56 more on special teams. He did miss two games with a hamstring injury.
Elliott proved to be a reliable tackler in his first season in Pittsburgh as he converted 108 of 111 tackle opportunities for a 97.3% efficiency mark. That was the highest in Next Gen Stats tackle data since 2018 (minimum of 100 attempts). In coverage Elliott allowed 47 receptions on 66 regular-season targets for 432 yards and three touchdowns, according to Pro Football Focus.
All told, Elliott was one of the brighter players on the Steelers’ defense in 2024 and especially the closer he played to the line of scrimmage. He fit the Steelers well as their strong safety in 2024.
Outlook: Elliott played so well in 2024 that the Steelers just rewarded him with a two-year contract extension. That was a bit of a rarity when it comes to the Steelers, so it lets you know what they think about him after just one season in Pittsburgh.
Elliott will obviously be the Steelers starting strong safety once again in 2025. Hopefully he will be able to play in all 17 regular-season games after missing two in 2024 due to injury.
Elliott could very well wind up with well more than 100 total tackles in 2025. While a strong box player, and especially against the run, Elliott could stand to do a little better job in coverage in his second season in Pittsburgh. It would be nice to see him total a few more interceptions in 2025.
In summation, it’s reasonable to expect Elliott to have a 2025 season similar to 2024 and potentially an even better one now that he has been in the defensive system for a year.
Previous Posts In This Series:
90 In 30: Steelers 2025 Training Camp Preview Series — Calvin Anderson, Spencer Anderson, Calvin Austin III
90 In 30: Steelers 2025 Training Camp Preview Series — Keeanu Benton, Beanie Bishop Jr., Yahya Black
90 In 30: Steelers 2025 Training Camp Preview Series — Chris Boswell, Nick Broeker, Carson Bruener
90 In 30: Steelers 2025 Training Camp Preview Series — Sebastian Castro, Dylan Cook, Domenique Davis
