The Pittsburgh Steelers find that their 2017 season ended a bit prematurely, and are undergoing the exit meeting process a couple weeks sooner than they would have liked. Nevertheless, what must be done must be done, and we are now at the time of the year where we close the book on one season and look ahead to the next.
While we might not know all the details about what goes on between Head Coach Mike Tomlin and his players during these exit meetings, we do know how we would conduct those meetings if they were let up to us. So here are the Depot’s exit meetings for the Steelers’ roster following the 2016 season.
Player: Roosevelt Nix
Position: Fullback
Experience: 3 Years
Can the fullback still be considered a starter in today’s game? Not for practical purposes, but technically, sure. At least as long as the Pro Bowl still recognizes it that way, which worked out well for the Steelers’ fullback, Roosevelt Nix, who got the opportunity to be named a Pro Bowler and play in the game when the Patriots’ fullback…well, made it to the Super Bowl which they lost and is still awesome.
Nix has been getting a fair bit of air time lately, especially after the three-year veteran signed a four-year contract, which obviously says a lot about how well his actual exit meeting must have gone. He also got some play for being the first person to conduct an interview with Ryan Shazier since his injury, during which he said that he fully intends to resume his goal of reaching the Hall of Fame.
As for Nix, most of the season was roughly more of the same, blowing up people on special teams and digging out linebackers to open holes in the run game, but we did see a couple of wrinkles late in the season that gave him opportunities as a ballcarrier.
He got his first carry of his career toward the end of the season, taking the ball into the end zone from a yard out for his first touchdown on a fullback dive. His first rushing touchdown, that is. A few weeks earlier, Ben Roethlisberger found him at the goal line as, presumably, the fifth option against the Ravens on first and goal.
He also just so happened to open the game with a tone-setting tackle on special teams, taking down returner Chris Moore after just a 16-yard kick return to the 17-yard line. As a college lineman who initially tried to make an NFL roster as a linebacker, he is certainly not averse to hitting people.
And he does bring that mentality to his fullback duties. Somewhat short and compactly build, Nix has proven to be too much of a load for more than a few defenders at this point, three years into his career, and he will continue to do so going forward, whether it’s for Le’Veon Bell or somewhere else.
