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.
We have hardly talked about him at all, but perhaps we should, because second-year offensive lineman Keavon Milton (#76) has been lining up with the Steelers’ second-team line all throughout training camp. That should at least put him in the competitive race for a spot on the practice squad, which is not insignificant.
As a matter of fact, he was on the practice squad already. The Steelers signed him on October 25 last year and he remained there for the rest of the season. They thought enough of what he had shown during that time that they signed him to a Reserve/Future contract as soon as the season ended, along with Matt Feiler, their other lineman on the practice squad.
It’s quite possible that the two of them team up again this year for spots on the practice squad, which may not actually be a bad idea. Both of them are capable of playing tackle and guard. The Steelers even list him as a tackle, but he has been playing guard all throughout camp.
At 6’4” and 320 pounds, he really is pretty much in that grey area between interior linemen and the bookends, neither a physical strength nor liability. Anyway, it has not up to this point seemed to be an obvious advantage or disadvantage for him.
Not that he has necessarily been performing spectacularly. I recall one of Alex’s training camp entries in which he mentioned Milton several times being on the wrong end of Tyson Alualu. But hey, Alualu is a good player. And Alex did also mention seeing him get work on special teams.
The man has been around the block. Originally undrafted in 2013 out of ULM, he was released in final cutdowns by the Saints, but claimed off waivers by the Browns. He was active for eight games that year but did not make the team in 2014.
He time spent that year with the Seahawks, dressing for one game, and since then has spent time on the practice squads of the Patriots and Cowboys before joining the Steelers’ a few days after Dallas let him go. And here he still is, almost 10 months later.
