We are now at a point during the offseason in which we find ourselves looking at training camp just around the corner for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the rest of the league, and a lot has changed for them over the course of the past several months. They have lost a number of players in free agency, through releases, and retirements. But they have also brought in a number of new faces to replace them.
We all know that roster turnover is an ever-present reality for today’s rosters, and it seems that over the course of the past half-decade or so even the Steelers have proven to be as susceptible to the annual shakeup as anybody. With that in mind, we should take the time to get to know some of the new faces with training camp soon to be here.
You know who we really haven’t talked about much this summer? Kameron Canaday. You know him well, of course. He is the other long snapper on the roster. You know, the one that was not a draft pick.
There is some connection with him. A former undrafted free agent a year ago, Canaday actually originally made Bruce Arians’s Cardinals last season, but things did not end well for Portland State product.
Kanaday won a competition for Arizona last season to begin the year as their starting long snapper. He did not finish the season. And it probably takes a lot in order for a long snapper to lose his job in the middle of the season. It’s simply not a position you want to mess with in terms of continuity.
But he did get cut. He was their long snapper for the first three games and then Arians released him, noting on his way out the door that “it has nothing to do with anything but what’s between his ears”. I don’t know about you but that doesn’t really sound like a compliment.
The Steelers originally signed him to a Reserve/Future contract at the beginning of the offseason. They released him following the 2017 NFL Draft when they used a sixth-round draft pick on long snapper Colin Holba, but then the plans changed.
After that, of course, it was mutually agreed upon that Greg Warren, their veteran long snapper for over a decade, was no longer fit to play. He was released with a failed physical designation and is presumably now unofficially retired from the NFL.
Holba is very obviously going to be the favorite to win the long snapper job, but it is not a guarantee by any means. The Steelers drafted a long snapper the year Warren beat him out for the job way back in the mid-2000s, after all.
Holba has never played a snap in the NFL. Canaday does have a bit of experience in the league already. There could be a competition for the job, even if the Steelers would like to see Holba win it.
