The Pittsburgh Steelers wrapped up their annual mandatory minicamp a few weeks ago and with that, the long wait until training camp gets underway in late July has commenced. The Steelers’ active roster now sits at 90 players and that group will obviously go through some changes prior to the team cutting down to 53 prior to Week 1 of the 2023 regular season. Within that obvious statement revolves a big offseason question: Will the Steelers add any additional players to their roster moving forward prior to the start of the regular season that will ultimately make the team’s Week 1 53-man roster?
Based on the team’s last 11 offseasons, odds are good such an occurrence will indeed happen.
Below is list of players, dating back to the 2012 offseason, that the Steelers signed after mandatory minicamp had ended who ultimately were on the team’s week 1 53-man roster each season. In total, that list of players is 34, which averages out to be a little more than three per year. In only one year out of the last 11 did the team not have a post-mandatory minicamp player addition who failed to be on the team’s 53-man roster and that was in 2019.
Just last year the Steelers had three post mandatory minicamp roster additions who went on to be on the team’s Week 1 53-man roster. Those three players were defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi, outside linebacker Malik Reed and guard Jesse Davis. Two of those three players, Reed and Davis, were acquired via trades right before the regular season started.
Of the 34 players on this compilation list dating back to 2012, 11 of them were acquired via trades. That’s roughly one every three players added. 13 of the 34 were added in the month of September as well.
It is now worth noting that the Steelers have already signed two players since their 2023 mandatory minicamp ended a few weeks ago. Those two players signed were inside linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski and long snapper Rex Sunahara. Will either of them wind up making the Week 1 53-man roster? We’ll see.
Moving past the recent additions of Kwiatkoski and Sunahara, one must like the chances of more players being added in some form or fashion prior to Week 1.
The new variable in all this speculation concerning more forthcoming additions for Steelers is new general manager Omar Khan. Even so, Khan has already shown himself to be quite aggressive when it comes to his style of running the team so far this offseason.
To end this post, I can see the Steelers potentially adding a veteran slot cornerback to their roster moving forward into the summer. Additionally, I don’t think it’s out of the question that a veteran running back could ultimately be added as well. Rest assured, we will know for sure if any more names need to be added to the list of 34 below in 75 days from now.
