On Monday, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin entertained a question about the future of defensive end Stephon Tuitt during the team’s annual pre-draft press conference. In summation, Tomlin was short and to the point and he said there is no update on Tuitt with the 2022 NFL Draft approaching. Since then, however, Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert has also been asked to provide an update on Tuitt and while his answer wasn’t much longer than Tomlin’s was, it was a tad bit more informative overall.
“No, there’s nothing to update,” Colbert told Missi Matthews of steelers.com. “Again, we were encouraged by our last session with Stephon, and we’ll continue to monitor that and see where he is as we move out to the field.”
The Steelers offseason program is still currently in Phase 1 and thus the team is indoors working on strength and conditioning through this week. Phase 2 of the steelers offseason program gets underway next week. That voluntary phase includes on-field workouts that may include drills with strict guidelines and no contact. Coaches are permitted to be on the field during Phase 2 and all drills must be conducted at an acceptable walkthrough pace that is for instructional purposes only.
So, is that the phase that Colbert is talking about when it comes to moving out to the field? It’s possible. Based on pictures released this past week by the Steelers on the team’s official website, there was no sign of Tuitt. That doesn’t necessarily mean that he wasn’t present, only that nobody has yet to spot him. With Matthews asking Colbert about Tuitt’s status, odds are good that he has yet to be present at the team facility as part of Phase 1.
For whatever it’s worth, it sounds like Colbert and the Steelers have had some sort of dialogue with Tuitt recently. Even so, it doesn’t sound like it is for sure that he will return to the team for the 2022 season.
The draft will take place at the end of this week, and it will be interesting to see if the Steelers select a defensive lineman at any point during it and specifically during the early rounds. If they do, that might be a sign that the team thinks they might have to move on from Tuitt this summer. If, however, the Steelers don’t draft another defensive lineman by late Saturday night, perhaps that can be taken as a sign that the team believes they will have Tuitt back in the fold for the 2022 season.
Overall, and has been the case for quite a while, all we can do is speculate as to Tuitt’s future right now.
