With the Pittsburgh Steelers’ season cut short, they’re quickly transitioning to the offseason. That means shaping their roster for the rest of the winter. One man who will be apart of that is offensive tackle Zach Banner, who took to Twitter to announce he’s re-signed with the team for 2019.
He was set to be an exclusive rights free agent at the end of the year, meaning the Steelers could sign him to a cheap, one-year deal without any other team having the ability to sign him away.
Banner was a mild surprise this season. Added to the training camp roster on August 12th, he showed enough to make the Steelers 53 man roster. However, he dressed for only a handful of games and didn’t play an offensive snap, even with the injury to Marcus Gilbert. Matt Feiler and Chukwuma Okorafor played ahead of him throughout the year.
He nearly fell out of the league after being drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in the 4th round of the 2017 draft. Indy cut him out of camp. Banner was claimed by Cleveland, spent the year with them before being released in March and then spending a short time with the Carolina Panthers this May.
A mountain of a man at 6’8 350, he’ll have to show he has the pass protection chops to make it in the league. If Mike Munchak stays in Pittsburgh, those odds unfortunately don’t look good right now, Banner will have a chance to take another step in 2019.
