Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2022 season is over, the team finishing above .500 but failing to make the postseason, we turn our attention to the offseason and everything that means. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on broader contexts, reflecting on a player’s development, either positively or negatively, over the course of the season. Other evaluations will reflect only one immediate event or trend. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: DL Larry Ogunjobi
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: The veteran defensive lineman is said to be looking very good this offseason, particularly physically, after having the benefit of having a full offseason to train. He did not have that opportunity last year due to injury, but has said himself that he is now in the best shape of his life.
Claims of a player being in the best shape of their life are frequently and justifiably met with some sense of fatigue. It’s a common line that sometimes devolves into a running gag, with the same players described annually as being in the best shape of their career.
In Larry Ogunjobi’s case, though, it appears to be true, and that’s not wholly unconnected with the fact that he was injured a year ago. suffering a foot injury during the 2021 postseason, he was unable to do a great deal through much of the 2022 offseason. He told reporters that he couldn’t run until July. This offseason, his training started in January.
Of course, the goal is to be playing ball until February, and that’s what he intends to help the Steelers be doing this year. Having experienced the difficulties of playing through a year without a full and proper offseason, he’s dedicated himself to getting in the best shape of his life to set himself up for a career year.
Re-signed to Pittsburgh this offseason on a three-year deal in the ballpark of $30 million, Ogunjobi played an inconsistent campaign last year, no doubt a reflection of his health a year ago, which also included some in-season ailments.
He has sought to do everything in his power this time around to prevent those sorts of things from holding him back and returning him to the sort of player he was that attracted so much attention last offseason—agreeing to a three-year, $40.5 million deal before the offered was pulled following a failed physical.
Another good reason to get into the best shape of your career, I would imagine.
We haven’t gotten many glimpses of him so far, but from what I’ve seen, he does look to be a different player than he was a year ago. “Have you not seen the transformation?”, young teammate DeMarvin Leal even asked reporters when discussing Ogunjobi.
