Will the Pittsburgh Steelers carry a 90-man roster through the first few weeks of training camp. They can if they want to, but we’ll find out for sure by Tuesday if they will or not.
According to recently concluded negotiations between the NFL and NFLPA, teams can carry 90-man rosters until August 16 but only if they utilize split-squad procedures that have been created. Should teams decide against needing a 90-man roster until August 16, they must be down to 80 players come the first day of training camp, which is on Tuesday, July 28.
As of Sunday afternoon, several NFL teams have started trimming their rosters. In fact, the New England Patriots and Arizona Cardinals have each already trimmed ten players from their respective rosters to get down to 80.
Should the Steelers ultimately decide to go down to 80 players, there’s a good chance they’ll wait until right at the deadline to announce their moves, just as they do every year when it comes time to trim their roster down to 53-players. I’d expect the Steelers to carefully watch the official NFL transaction sheet in the meantime to see if a player they think would offer an upgrade gets waived.
If and when the Steelers do decide to trim their roster to 80 players by Tuesday evening, we’ll pass along the transactions as soon as they are announced. In the meantime, however, here is a post that attempted to identify the 10 players most likely to be waived by the Steelers should the team go to 80 in the coming few days.
Chicago Bears
TE Ben Braunecker
Cincinnati Bengals
CB Isiah Swann
Arizona Cardinals
TE Parker Houston
OLB Vontarrious Dora
QB Drew Anderson
DE T.J. Carter
OL Jackson Dennis
OL Drew Dickinson
WR Shane Leatherbury
WR Devin Phelps
CB Jarren Williams
CB Bejour Wilson
Miami Dolphins
DT Ray Lima
QB Jake Rudock
WR Ricardo Louis
LB Trent Harris
DE Avery Moss
New York Giants
K Aldrick Rosas
New England Patriots
CB Lenzy Pipkins
QB J’Mar Smith
QB Brian Lewerke
WR Isaiah Zuber
WR Sean Riley
WR Will Hastings
LB Kyahva Tezino
DT Courtney Wallace
S Adarius Pickett
S Malik Gant
Baltimore Ravens
DE Michael Onuoha
Tennessee Titans
DL Amani Bledsoe
LB Nigel Harris
TE Cole Herdman
WR Trevion Thompson
OL Zac Kerin
RB Shaun Wilson
Philadelphia Eagles
TE Alex Ellis
WR Khalil Tate
C Keegan Render
CB Trevor Williams
WR Shelton Gibson
WR Marcus Green
DE Daeshon Hall
DT Albert Huggins
CB Tremon Smith
Seattle Seahawks
C Joey Hunt
DE Branden Jackson
RB Patrick Carr
WR Seth Dawkins
G Kahlil McKenzie
DB Josh Norwood
G Jordan Roos
LB Sutton Smith
TE Dominick Wood-Anderson
Washington Football Team
G Jeremy Vujnovich
WR Emanuel Hall
