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 Henry Mondeaux
Stock Value: Down
Reasoning: As with the rest of the reserve defensive linemen, the battle for opportunities got that much harder for Henry Mondeaux following the signing of Larry Ogunjobi, pretty much ending any hopes of his making the 53-man roster.
The former Oregon Duck has been kicking around with the Steelers for a few years now, and he hasn’t just been a body. He has played. Between defense and special teams, he has logged nearly 600 snaps for the Steelers since 2020, including nearly 250 defensive snaps last season.
Now, how many snaps would he have played last year if the team had Stephon Tuitt and Tyson Alualu available all year long? While Tuitt is now retired, he has simply been replaced by Larry Ogunjobi, and Alualu is back healthy.
That is after the team already added third-round pick DeMarvin Leal via the draft. They also re-signed Montravius Adams as a free agent, a guy who they found mid-season and who seems to factor into their plans going forward.
There’s still Cameron Heyward, and Chris Wormley and Isaiahh Loudermilk as well. Even Carlos Davis and perhaps his brother Khalil all stand a better chance of vying for one of six or seven spots on the 53-man roster this year for defensive linemen.
Even before the Ogunjobi signing, it was have still been a very difficult task for Mondeaux to force his way onto the team, and it probably would have had to involve his resurrecting his coverage and blocking roles on special teams units like he did in 2020.
But they have numbers along the defensive line. And they know that Mondeaux isn’t going to be some hot targets that other teams are going to be tripping over themselves to scoop up should the Steelers waive and try to add him to their practice squad. Yet he might not even make the practice squad this time around, so great now are their numbers. They could house the two Davis brothers there and still carry seven on the 53-man roster with comfort.
