The Pittsburgh Steelers ended the 2019 season much as they did the 2018 season, by allowing their playoff fate slip out of their grasp. Slow starts and slow finishes permeated both campaigns, with strong runs in between. But while the results were the same missing the playoffs, the means were quite different.
Yet again, they find themselves undergoing the exit meeting process earlier than anticipated, which means so are we. But that they still managed to go 8-8 without Ben Roethlisberger, and with the general quality of play that they faced along the way, I suppose things could have been worse.
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 2018 season.
Player: Amara Darboh
Position: WR
Experience: 1 Year
Amara Darboh was part of a flurry of late-season moves that the Steelers made at the wide receiver position, following the Cleveland Browns game during which JuJu Smith-Schuster suffered a concussion and a knee injury that would knock him out for a month. Diontae Johnson also suffered a concussion in that game, though he did not miss any time.
At the same time that the Steelers signed Darboh to the practice squad, they also signed Quadree Henderson to the squad. Days prior to that, they acquired Deon Cain by signing him off of the practice squad of the Indianapolis Colts onto the 53-man roster. They would later also sign Jamal Custis to the practice squad, and all four receivers remain with the team on the 90-man roster.
Unlike Henderson and Custis, Darboh was actually promoted to the 53-man roster by the end of the season, replacing Tevin Jones, who was activated to the 53-man roster to take the place of Ryan Switzer, shortly before Cain was signed.
He spent the final two games of the 2019 season on the Steelers’ 53-man roster, though he did not dress. He previously was on the 53-man roster of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for two games, but did not dress for them, either.
He did, however, dress for all 16 games as a rookie former third-round draft pick of the Seattle Seahawks in 2017. He only caught eight passes for 71 yards that season, and was waived with the roster cuts prior to the next season.
The New England Patriots claimed Darboh off waivers, but he was released with a failed physical designation, and he then reverted back to the Seahawks, spending the year on injured reserve. He was battling hip and clavicle injuries and ultimately had surgery. He did not make the Seahawks’ roster in 2019, but would spend much of the year on the Buccaneers’ practice squad before he was briefly promoted.
