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90 In 30: Steelers 2023 Training Camp Preview Series: Keanu Neal, Tre Norwood, James Nyamwaya

By Dave Bryan

Posted on July 14, 2023 at 8:15 am

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 Keanu Neal, Tre Norwood, and James Nyamwaya.

S Keanu Neal: The Steelers signed Neal to a two-year, $4.25 million contract this offseason after he spent the 2022 season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Last season, Neal, who was selected in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons, played in all 17 regular-season games with the Buccaneers on his way to registering 63 total tackles, two for loss, half a sack, one interception, four passes defensed and five quarterback hits. He played a total of 581 defensive snaps in 2022 and 104 more on special teams. He will be 28 years old come the start of the 2023 regular season.

Outlook: With the Steelers losing strong safety Terrell Edmunds in unrestricted free agency this past offseason, Neal figures to play a part in filling those lost snaps on defense. He’s best suited playing inside the box, especially on early downs. He’s a safety who can play as a quasi-off-the-ball linebacker and he even played linebacker a few seasons ago when he was a member of the Dallas Cowboys.

While Neal’s unlikely to be an every-down defensive player with the Steelers, he should still see the field quite often. In fact, he could wind up playing around 50 percent of all defensive snaps in 2023. Additionally, Neal might be asked to play on a special teams unit or two now that he’s with the Steelers. Last season, most of his special teams snaps came on the punt return team. Neal has pedigree and is still well under 30 years of age. If used correctly in Pittsburgh, he might be on tap for a solid 2023 season, especially if he stays fully healthy. That has been an issue for him at times throughout his NFL career.

S Tre Norwood: In 2022, his second NFL season, Norwood, who was selected by the Steelers in the seventh round of the 2021 NFL Draft out of Oklahoma, played less than he did as a rookie. In total, Norwood played 243 defensive snaps in 2022 in addition to 156 more on special teams. He missed the Steelers’ final two games of the 2022 regular season due to a hamstring injury.

All told, Norwood registered 23 total tackles in 2022. Two of those went for lost yardage. In coverage, Norwood was targeted 20 times and he allowed 10 completions for 118 yards. While he did play various spots on defense in 2022, most of his snaps came at free safety.

Outlook: If we’re being honest, Norwood shouldn’t be considered a lock to make the Steelers’ 53-man roster as we sit here right before the start of the team’s training camp. While he came out of college as a Swiss Army knife-type player, he’s had some problems adjusting to the NFL game, especially in some coverage situations. He’s more of a free safety than he is strong safety, and with Damontae Kazee likely to be the primary backup to Minkah Fitzpatrick in 2023, that could result in Norwood needing the Steelers to keep five at his position group for him to survive the final roster cuts.

Norwood could help his summer cause by sticking out as a core special teamer. He’s got experience in that phase of the NFL game but has only managed six total tackles in his first two seasons despite playing 358 snaps on those units. It could go either way with Norwood come Week 1 of the season. Should he indeed fail to make the 53-man roster, there’s a decent chance that he’d circle back to the practice squad.

DE James Nyamwaya: The Steelers signed Nyamwaya as one of the team’s original six 2023 undrafted free agents and his path to the NFL came via the small school route. Last season, Nyamwaya played at Merrimack, and he registered 27 total tackles, 6.5 for loss, 5.5 sacks, one forced fumble and a fumble recovery in 10 games played. In his three previous college seasons at Curry College, Nyamwaya registered 136 total tackles, nine for loss, 3.5 sacks, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and a pass defensed in the 26 games that he played in. At his 2022 Pro Day, Nyamwaya measured in at 6040, 294-pounds with 34 1/4-inch arms.

Outlook: The Steelers have quite a deep defensive line depth chart heading into training camp, and that means Nyamwaya will likely be battling for a practice squad spit this summer. His measurables are likely a big thing that attracted the Steelers to him. He’s a small-school developmental player for the team this summer and it will be interesting to see if he can do enough in training camp and the preseason to warrant being signed to the practice squad by Week 1.

Related Items:2023 Training Camp, James Nyamwaya, Keanu Neal, Tre Norwood

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