The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 offseason practices concluded in the middle of June and next up is their annual training camp, which gets underway in late July at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe. Ahead of training camp, we will preview the team’s offseason roster three players at a time for you as part of a 30-post series. This Steelers roster preview, which includes outlooks for every player, will be done alphabetically by last name to make it easy to follow.
The next three players we will preview ahead of Steelers 2023 training camp are Luq Barcoo, Keeanu Benton, and Chris Boswell.
CB Luq Barcoo: The Steelers signed Barcoo in the middle May after he had a successful season in the XFL with the San Antonio Brahmas that included him registering 31 total tackles, three for loss, one sack, one interception, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. He was an All-XFL team selection for his efforts. Most of his XFL snaps came with him playing on the outside. According to advanced XFL stats, Barcoo had the second-most snaps in press coverage this past season, 145 or 39% of his total, while San Antonio ran the most-single high (34% Cover 1, 28% Cover 3) of any team this season.
Prior to playing in the XFL, Barcoo, a San Diego State product, spent time in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, Kansas City Chiefs, and New York Jets. He’s appeared in three NFL games, all with the Jaguars his rookie year, and logged 152 defensive snaps. He made 10 tackles and had one pass deflection. According to PFF, most of his NFL snaps came as an outside cornerback, playing only six in the slot.
Outlook: With the Steelers adding two cornerbacks in the 2023 NFL Draft this offseason in Joey Porter Jr. and Cory Trice Jr., in addition to signing veteran cornerback Patrick Peterson in free agency, Barcoo most definitely will have a hard path when it comes to him making the 53-man roster. That fact that he’s mainly been an outside cornerback also hurts his 53-man roster chances.
Even so, a very impressive training camp and preseason on defense and special teams would at least give Barcoo an outside chance of beating his long odds, especially if he can pass fellow cornerback James Pierre on the depth chart. Realistically speaking, however, Barcoo figures to show enough this summer to warrant strong consideration for a practice squad spot to open the 2023 regular season. In conclusion, Barcoo will need a lot of things to go his way this summer for him to be on the Week 1 53-man roster.
DT Keeanu Benton: The Steelers selected Benton in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft out of Wisconsin and quite honestly, that wasn’t a huge surprise based on things such as his measurables and the college system that he played in. Benton mostly played between the B-gaps during his four seasons at Wisconsin on his way to registering 81 total tackles, 19 for loss, nine sacks, four passes defensed, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. He played in 39 games over those four seasons in college and a little more than 1,300 total defensive snaps. The Steelers are hoping that Benton can become a mainstay on the defensive line for many years to come.
Outlook: As a rookie, it’s not unthinkable that Benton could start the 2023 regular season as the Steelers’ starting nose tackle. How he performs the rest of the summer will help determine if such an immediate role can be achieved, however. The Steelers mainly used Montravius Adams in that role in 2022 and Benton should easily be able to overtake him on the depth chart. The offseason additions of defensive tackle-types Breiden Fehoko and Armon Watts, however, could certainly challenge Benton for starting playing time by Week 1.
As the 2023 season progresses, Benton should make strides in the middle of the Steelers’ defense and thus provide the front a player who can not only defend the run effectively, but also provide some consistent pressure up the middle as well in passing situations. He’ll start sooner rather than later as a rookie. The only question at this point is really if he will do that by Week 1.
K Chris Boswell: After fantastic 2021 season, Boswell didn’t have a very good showing overall in 2022. The Steelers’ kicker since 2015 made just 20 of his 28 field goal attempts in 2022 in the 12 games that he played in. He was, however, perfect on his extra point attempts in 2022, 18 of 18. Injuries certainly didn’t help Boswell’s cause in 2022 and that probably played a big part in his poor field goal attempt percentage. That groin injury that Boswell dealt with even landed him on the Steelers’ Reserve/Injured list for four games in 2022.
Outlook: Entering 2023, the biggest concerns when it comes to Boswell are his ability to stay healthy and his age. He’s now 32 and has missed nine games in total over the course of the last three seasons. Boswell signed a four-year, $16.8 million contract extension last offseason and at the time he was the second-highest paid kicker in the NFL. In short, Boswell will be expected to return to his 2021 form in 2023. While Boswell seems to be a virtual a lock to continue to be the Steelers’ kicker in 2023, stranger things have happened before.
The Steelers did sign former Clemson kicker B.T. Potter as an undrafted free agent this offseason. He looks to be the extra leg that the team will carry the rest of the summer should Boswell somehow falter tremendously. Here’s to Boswell returning to form in 2023.
Previous Posts In This Series:
90 In 30: Steelers 2023 Training Camp Preview Series: Montravius Adams, Spencer Anderson, Calvin Austin III
