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: ILB Elandon Roberts
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: Since the Steelers signed free agent inside linebacker Elandon Roberts, the coaching staff and front office have done little to suggest his opportunity to start this season will be limited.
Elandon Roberts is one of those players we have not discussed in this column since the Steelers signed him back in March, and a lot has happened since then. By and large, it’s been all to the positive since then with respect to his path to a starting job.
While he was expected to be a starter—albeit perhaps a two-down linebacker—when he signed, we also heard a lot of talk from beat writers about how high the coaches are on second-year Mark Robinson. Yet when it came time to talk about his development, defensive coordinator Teryl Austin basically said, “maybe next year”.
Now, that’s not to say that his remarks weren’t at least partly intended to fuel Robinson, nor does it mean that Robinson can’t surprise his coordinator in training camp and show that he is not only ready to play but to compete for a starting job. But he’ll have to go out there and show that first before he unseats a veteran like Roberts.
Many believed that the Steelers might draft an inside linebacker as well. Did they? Well, it’s hard to say. While both general manager Omar Khan and assistant general manager Andy Weidl after the draft volunteered their enthusiasm about fourth-round linebacker Nick Herbig’s versatility, it does seem as though their plan is to see if he can stick on the outside.
Either way, in my estimation, it doesn’t seem as though the team has done much since signing Roberts that would impact his ability to log somewhere in the vicinity of 700-800 snaps during the 2023 season as a two-down buck linebacker in this defense.
That could go down depending on how committed the Steelers are to running dime defenses, with safeties Damontae Kazee and Keanu Neal on the field at the same time. It’s a package they ran extensively in 2013 after Larry Foote was injured in the season opener, and they ran it fairly frequently while Vince Williams was a full-time starter as well.
But that’s not a new variable. And the additions of Tanner Muse and Nick Kwiatkoski to the inside linebacker room should not move the needle, either.
