The Steelers are now in their offseason after failing to reach the playoffs in 2022, coming up just a game short of sneaking in as the seventh seed. They needed help in week 18 and only got some of it, so instead they sat home and watched the playoffs with the rest of us.
On tap is figuring out how to be on the field in January and February instead of being a spectator. They started out 2-6, digging a hole that proved too deep to dig out of even if they managed to go 7-2 in the second half of the year.
Starting from the end of the regular season and leading all the way up to the beginning of the 2023 season, there are plenty of questions that need answered, starting with who will be the offensive coordinator. Which free agents will be kept? Who might be let go due to their salary? How might they tackle free agency with this new front office? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout this offseason, as we have for many years.
Question: Which bottom-of-the-roster wide receiver has the best chance of making the team?
There is usually a surprise, underdog story who makes the team in most years. Sometimes more than one. With the depth of this roster, I’m not sure if this is one of the more likely seasons for that to happen, but the only way to find out is to let things play out.
The wide receiver position is interesting this year. You have three locks in Diontae Johnson, George Pickens, and Allen Robinson II, a very firm likely lock in Calvin Austin III, and then…a bunch of guys who can do different things, none of which are essential.
But for the purposes of this exercise, I am not going to include Miles Boykin and Gunner Olszewski as being players at the bottom of the roster. They are returning from spending all of last season on the 53-man roster, after all.
The players under consideration for this question are Ja’Marcus Bradley, Hakeem Butler, Dan Chisena, Dez Fitzpatrick, Cody White, and Jordan Byrd. Bradley, a second-year veteran, spent time on the practice squad last year. the 5’9” Byrd, a return specialist primarily, is the only rookie, a college free agent.
White is the only one in the group to have spent time on the Steelers’ 53-man roster before, but Chisena has the most NFL experience as an established special teams player, who could challenge Boykin’s special teams role.
Butler is probably going to be a popular pick, but he is probably the biggest bust in the group. A former fourth-round pick who was scouted as going even higher, he has never caught a pass in the NFL, and even failed to make a dent in the CFL. His recent success in the XFL is his first professional highlight, no matter how impressive he might look in a uniform. Fitzpatrick is also a former fourth-round pick in 2021, who has five catches and a touchdown. Like many others in this group, size is his defining attribute, at 6’2”.
