The Pittsburgh Steelers are now in Latrobe at Saint Vincent College, where they have held their training camp sessions since 1966. While the vast majority of the legwork of building the 90-man roster is done, there is always some fine tinkering to do. Now it’s time to figure out who is worthy of a roster spot, and what their role will be.
The team made some bold moves this offseason and in some areas of the roster look quite a bit different than they did a year ago. That would especially be the case at wide receiver and inside linebacker, where they’re bound to have new starters.
How will those position groups sort themselves out? How will the young players advance into their expected roles? Will the new coaches be up to the task? Who is looking good in practice? Who is sitting out due to injury?
These are the sorts of questions among many others that we have been exploring on a daily basis and will continue to do so. Football has become a year-round pastime and there is always a question to be asked, though there is rarely a concrete answer, as I’ve learned in my years of doing this.
Question: Who are some of the players that you are most looking forward to seeing in the first preseason game?
We are getting close to the return of Steelers football, even if it is a preseason game. Expect a lot of starters to not participate of course, but the type of people who actually follow our site are the ones who know almost everybody’s name on the 90-man roster…and also know that they have a 91-man roster because of Christian Scotland-Williamson.
In terms of players we’re interested in seeing, perhaps we can start with Scotland-Williamson, who two years ago was just a rugby player and is now slowly, hopefully, transforming himself into an American football player.
The quarterbacks behind Ben Roethlisberger are too obvious of a choice, in my opinion, so I’ll let them go with only a cursory mention. I’m going to want to see some Benny Snell football, personally, but also some Jaylen Samuels football, on that note. We’ll have to see about his level of participation, but obviously Diontae Johnson is another name.
Among veterans, I want to get a look at Cameron Sutton and monitor his progress. I want to see what Artie Burns looks like. How is Terrell Edmunds, assuming that he plays, looking in his second season? Will he be flying to the ball?
Kameron Kelly is one of the fringe roster candidates who have the best chance of making the team, though free safeties are an especially tough evaluation in the preseason. Casey Sayles, another guy I want to check up on, another AAF player.
Oh, and maybe that Devin Bush guy. Let’s see what he looks like, running around like a chicken without a head.
