The Pittsburgh Steelers are back in the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex earlier than they had anticipated, having been ousted before they even reached the postseason, which unfortunately marks the sixth consecutive season in which they failed to win a postseason game—tying their longest drought of the Super Bowl era. Yet again, they find themselves undergoing the exit meeting process earlier than anticipated, which means so are we.
The Steelers did arguably perform at or above expectations this year by going 9-8 and nearly making the postseason at all, a reflection of just how much talent they lost during the offseason, from Ben Roethlisberger and Joe Haden to most of their wide receiver room, not to mention Stephon Tuitt’s decision to retire.
While we might not know all the details about what goes on between head coach Mike Tomlin and his players during these exit meetings, we do know how we would conduct those meetings if they were let up to us. So here are the Depot’s exit meetings for the Steelers’ roster following the 2022 season.
Player: Benny Snell Jr.
Position: RB
Experience: 4 Years
Well, we actually happened to have just talked about Benny Snell in our stock watch series. But he also happens to be on deck for the exit meetings as well now that we’re talking about the running back depth. Jaylen Warren was the subject yesterday, so he’s next in line as the third-string ball carrier.
Not that he carried the ball very much. He saw less time on offense than he had in his first three seasons but he continued to play a huge role on special teams, logging 284 snaps in that area, or about two-thirds of the team’s total.
He also, by the way, finished the season with a career-high eight tackles, bettering his seven from the previous year when he logged over 300 special teams snaps. Six of those were on kick returns, the other two on punt returns. Both of his tackles on punt returns curiously came in the season opener. Four of his kick returns also occurred with Matthew Wright as the kicker.
Yet even for a special teamer, what most fans primarily care about is what they do on offense and defense. Snell only played 42 snaps on offense this year, nearly a third of the offensive snaps he had a year earlier, but he touched the ball on over half of his snaps.
22 touches in all, 20 of them carries, on which he picked up 90 yards for a 4.5-yard average and a touchdown. Considering he rushed for just 98 yards on 36 attempts with no touchdowns a year earlier, that’s not insignificant.
Snell is now a free agent. It’s unlikely that he’s going to find much of a market. I would imagine the Steelers are interested in re-signing him on a veteran minimum deal, which would allow him to come to training camp and compete to defend his roster spot. One person I know who wants him around is special teams coordinator Danny Smith.
