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: OLB Tuzar Skipper
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: The former undrafted journeyman edge rusher, picked up only on June 1, reportedly looked pretty good, at least relatively speaking, during mandatory minicamp, and will have a chance during training camp to push for a spot on the 53-man roster.
While I sincerely hope that nobody is looking to hang their hat on the Tuzar Skipper peg, it’s hard to ever say no to an underdog story, especially a familiar one, and we have gotten a couple of eyefuls of the Toledo product in years past, beginning as a college free agent in 2019. He even made the initial 53-man roster—before being waived later in the week.
Now a few years later, he’s back once again, for his third training camp with the Steelers, hoping to make the roster again, and this time to actually stick, and maybe even play. Perhaps he has a decent chance, considering the lack of quality depth behind starting outside linebackers T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith.
Veteran free agent Genard Avery reportedly did not impress during the spring workouts. Rookies T.D. Moultry and Tyree Johnson are just getting their feet under themselves. Skipper, to his credit, is the only one of this group that has prior familiarity with the Steelers’ defensive schemes.
It’s never a bad time to remind that at this time of year we have to rely entirely upon the observations of others, and we have to attempt to make educated assessments of the closest approximation to reality based on the patchwork information we can assemble together from a variety of sources.
My impression based on my own reading of the coverage of minicamp from various parties this year, however, gives me the impression—unsurprising that it is—that the Steelers’ second-team pass rushers looked unremarkable, for the most part. With Skipper being the best of the bunch up to this point. perhaps damning with faint praise here, but I am looking forward to seeing him in training camp and the preseason.
