The Pittsburgh Steelers were back in the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex earlier than they had anticipated, having been ousted before they even reached the postseason. That unfortunately marked the sixth-consecutive season in which the Steelers failed to win a postseason game—tying their longest drought of the Super Bowl era. Yet again, they found themselves undergoing the exit meeting process earlier than anticipated, which means so did we.
The Steelers did arguably perform at or above expectations this year by going 9-8 and nearly making the postseason, 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 retirement.
While we might not know what goes on between head coach Mike Tomlin and his players during exit meetings, we do know how we would conduct those meetings. So here are the Depot’s exit meetings for the Steelers’ roster following the 2022 season.
Player: Jamir Jones
Position: OLB
Experience: 2 Years
A former college free agent, Jamir Jones earned a spot on the Steelers’ 53-man roster in 2021. They moved on from him after a few games and then they lost him for a while, having been claimed off waivers multiple times in the interim.
But they got Jones back in the mix last year, and he once again made the team, playing in all 17 games and becoming a core special teamer with 251 snaps for Danny Smith’s groups. Defensively, he only logged 86 snaps, weighted toward the early and late portions of the year.
Jones played a bit more early on because of T.J. Watt getting hurt. That included 18 snaps in a 100-snap overtime victory for the defense in the season opener at Cincinnati, and then between five and eight snaps for the next several weeks.
Things settled down largely when Watt returned after the bye, but Jones started taking more playing time from Malik Reed as the season progressed, including 10 snaps in the final game of the year. Reed didn’t even dress for the last two games.
In all, Jones finished the year with 10 tackles, most of them on special teams, and one pass defensed. An exclusive-rights free agent, he has already been re-signed, and he should be relatively safe to make the roster because of his special-teams value.
But suffice it to say that if Jones is in position to be the top backup at outside linebacker this season, then something has gone awry. The third edge rusher is something the team needs to address this offseason, preferably with an established veteran who can come in on a relatively modest deal and accept a rotational role behind two Pro Bowl-caliber starters.
