Now that the 2021 season is over, bringing yet another year of disappointment, a fifth consecutive season with no postseason victories, it’s time to take stock of where the Pittsburgh Steelers stand. Specifically, where Steelers players stand individually based on what we have seen and are seeing over the course of the season and into the offseason as it plays out. We will also be reviewing players based on their previous season and their prospects for the future. A stock evaluation can take a couple of different approaches and I’ll try to make clear my reasoning. In some cases, it will be based on more long-term trends. In other instances, it will be a direct response to something that just happened. Because of this, we can and will see a player more than once over the course of the season as we move forward.
Player: DL Khalil Davis
Stock Value: Down
Reasoning: Khalil Davis, the higher-drafted of the Davis brothers (the other being Carlos), found himself released twice last season rather than extending his role on any team’s defense, and spent most of the year on the Steelers’ practice squad.
Although Khalil Davis came to the Steelers as a practice squad player and finished the season as a practice squad player, I am judging his stock based on where he should have reasonably expected to end the season from the beginning of the year.
Davis was a sixth-round pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020. Though he only played in two games as a rookie, he should have been expected to grow in year two. He never played a snap for the Buccaneers again. They waived him on October 2.
Initially, he had teams interested in his services, as perhaps would have been expected. The Steelers were one of multiple teams who put in a waiver claim for him, but he was awarded to the Indianapolis Colts instead. He played one game to the tune of six snaps and was waived again on October 30.
Pittsburgh did not try to claim him a second time this time allowing him to clear waivers, and they signed him to their practice squad on November 2, where he would remain for the remainder of the 2021 season, logging a total of six snaps on one game for the entire year across three different teams.
It seemed notable initially that the Steelers were willing to put in a waiver claim for him, because to do so, you have to put that player on your 53-man roster. That means they liked him enough when he was first released to be willing to make room for him and release somebody else.
But they felt differently a month later—perhaps more confident that nobody else would claim him the second time around. But the bottom line is he was never called upon to play at any point in the season, even when they were down to using Cameron Heyward at nose tackle and Henry Mondeaux was logging dozens of snaps next to Isaiahh Loudermilk.
They did retain him on a Reserve/Future contract, and at this point I still refuse to give up on either of the Davis brothers, hoping that their athletic talent can be harnessed this offseason and that at least one of them can serve as a meaningful contributor in 2022.
