With that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2022 season over, the team finishing above .500 but failing to make the postseason, we have turned our attention to the offseason. 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: WR Allen Robinson II
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: The veteran wide receiver returned to team drills last week for the first time in about half a year, since suffering a foot injury while with the Los Angeles Rams. He was placed on the Reserve/Injured List in late November and had surgery to repair a stress fracture. Taking things cautiously, he was limited to only individual drills during the first week of OTAs.
The Steelers are not unfamiliar with adding outside veterans who are dealing with injuries, so it’s no shock that they were willing to pull the trigger on a trade earlier this offseason that added Allen Robinson II to their roster.
A veteran wide receiver, now 29, Robinson suffered a stress fracture in his foot in the middle of the 2022 season, his lone campaign with the Los Angeles Rams. They were desperate to unload his contract his offseason, however, so Pittsburgh acquired him for a bargain, and with a modified contract.
While Robinson is perhaps slightly past his athletic prime, the bigger concern was his foot injury. The good news is, as is the subject of this update, that he is back to working at close to full capacity. His work in team drills beginning last week marked the first such activity for him since going on the Reserve/Injured List for the Rams in late November.
Expected to serve as the Steelers’ slot receiver this season working in between Diontae Johnson and George Pickens, perhaps his long speed will not be as coveted moving forward as is his ability to find the soft spots in zones. But short-area quickness and maneuverability are going to be in demand working between the numbers, as well.
Pittsburgh obviously felt comfortable with the prospect of adding Robinson as-is, though they have a bit of a mixed history in taking on such risks. Just last season, they traded for cornerback William Jackson III, who never played for the team due to a previously known back injury.
That shouldn’t be the case for the wide receiver, who is in a much different boat and should be good as new by the time the regular season begins. But getting back into team drills is an important step along that path, and probably a good weight off of his shoulders as well.
