Due to him violating the league’s substance abuse policy, current free agent running back Karlos Williams will miss the first four games of 2016 regular season. However, once he’s eligible to play again, you can expect that a few teams will be interested in kicking his tires and one of them could potentially be the Pittsburgh Steelers.
According to Sal Capaccio of WGR 550 Radio, sources close to the situation tell him the Steelers continue to show interest in Williams, who was released recently by the Buffalo Bills. Being as Karlos Williams is the younger brother of Steelers linebacker Vince Williams, this news probably isn’t overly surprising to many if it is indeed true.
During his 2015 rookie season, Williams rushed for 517 yards on just 93 carries and seven rushing touchdowns.
If Karlos Williams has hopes of resuming his NFL career in 2016 after serving his four-game suspension, he’ll need to get himself back in shape while a free agent. According to several reports, the Florida State product gained a considerable amount of weight during the offseason.
“Obviously he’s not anywhere close to where he needs to play at a high level,” Bills head coach Rex Ryan said this past June. “So we’ve got to get some weight off him and he certainly understands that.”
If anyone can straighten out Karlos, it’s probably his older brother Vince, who just signed a new contract with the Steelers last week. This will certainly be interesting to watch develop and it should be noted that interest doesn’t mean he will eventually be signed.
