For the rest of the preseason, we’ll give a recap, position by position, player by player of what I saw during the 2022 Pittsburgh Steelers training camp and preseason games. This list is based off the 16 public camp practices and the preseason games I’ve watched up until this point and is based solely off their performance then and does not necessarily represent my feelings for the players overall or during the regular season.
A heads up, I intend on using the full grading scale through these reports. Not just giving players A’s to C’s. It may sound harsh but it’s as honest and fair as I can be.
We’ll wrap up the skill positions with the wide receivers.
George Pickens
Pickens was a little less efficient than you’d expect and didn’t make quite as many big-plays downfield compared to a summer ago. But if anything, this camp was just as exciting. Pickens did the routine things routinely as often as he did the ridiculous. He aligned in the slot, motioned around pre-snap, and did a lot of damage on underneath routes. He can run over the middle of the field, create more separation on curls, and his YAC looks better. His 21 YAC on his touchdown against Tampa Bay in the preseason opener more than doubled his best YAC on any catch as a rookie.
Becoming a complete receiver is his goal. And he used this summer to move closer to that. It wasn’t always perfect — his catch rate in camp was a curiously low 54.3 percent — but I’m excited for the jump he can make as a multi-threat his sophomore season, not just the vertical jump-ball weapon.
Camp Grade: A
Diontae Johnson
A rock-solid camp for Johnson that sort of flew under the radar because of the attention the flashier Pickens received, though Johnson himself made a sick one-handed grab in a 7v7 period a day or two after Pickens’ viral grab on Joey Porter Jr.
Statistically, Johnson finished first on the team in receptions (26), third in targets (34), and fourth in yards (319) right behind Pickens’ 321. Over about a one week stretch, Johnson had just one incompletion among more than a dozen passes thrown his way, a drop in seven shots. But it was the only one we charged him for in camp, the same number as Pickens, so it shouldn’t be cause for concern.
Early in camp, Johnson was fairly quiet and perhaps felt frustrated from a lack of targets. But Pickett began firing the ball his way and the two showed a quality connection. That carried over into the preseason opener with Johnson making three receptions on the team’s opening drive, including an extended play to move the sticks on third and long.
Johnson had a strong and full camp, a stark contrast to last year when he missed the first week with his hold-in and then was dinged by an injury and missed out on reps with Mitch Trubisky. He later had to adjust to Pickett taking over as starter, and Pickett basically didn’t throw him the ball in the summer. Like the offense, Johnson is hitting the ground and overall, it was a successful summer.
Camp Grade: A
Calvin Austin III
Anyone wondering whether Austin still had his speed coming off 2022 foot surgery didn’t have to wait long for an answer. Austin still ran like a 4.32 guy with big play after big play in camp. He got off to a rocky start, an underwhelming first day, but once he shook off some of the rust, he settled in.
He didn’t catch a ton of passes and there were stretches in which his game went quiet but when he hit, he hit big. Austin averaged more than 20 yards per catch with a half-dozen completions of 30-plus yards. He also got involved in the run game with a handful of jet sweeps, six carries for 39 yards.
Inside stadiums, Austin carried his playmaking over. His first NFL touch went for 17 yards on a jet run, and he hit triple 7s with a 67-yard touchdown later in the game, burning the Buccaneers corner down the left sideline for the walk-in touchdown. Against the Bills, he returned a punt 54-yards, which sews up his spot there.
He’s not just a gadget guy either. He’s a defined wide receiver who is versatile and can and will be moved around. He even saw one backfield snap in camp, running an angle route over the middle (though the pass thrown his way was picked off). We’ll see if that gets sprinkled in during the regular season.
Austin’s issue is a relatively obvious one: his size, and more specifically, his lack of a catch radius. Every completion to him has to be on the money, between the 1-9. Sure, he can go down for a low throw on a curl but if he’s on the move horizontally or vertically, he’s not able to reach out and pull down a ball thrown off-target. He led the whole camp with four drops.
Still, his summer was good and encouraging as a big-play threat the Steelers offense needs. He may not catch a ton of passes this year, 30-35 sounds reasonable, but he’ll touch the ball in the run and return game, too. Austin could be a missing link for this offense.
Camp Grade: A-
Allen Robinson II
Robinson is who the Steelers need him to be. The tough, smart underneath receiver who can settle against zone. The guy who can make tough catches contested and outside his frame, attack leverage with option routes, the receiver who moves the sticks on third down. He displayed all of that in camp and made some of the toughest grabs of any receiver during team periods. His best grab was a seam ball down the left side that he plucked off the ground in the end zone from Pickett for a score in a two-minute drill.
He averaged only 10.3 yards per reception in camp but that’s going to reflect his in-season stat line. Reminds me a lot of JuJu Smith-Schuster his last two years with the team.
Robinson can also win in the red zone and his release package is still as excellent as ever, able to beat press/tight coverage off the line. He’ll primarily play in the slot but will also see time on the outside, experienced and versatile enough with nearly a decade of experience under his belt. Though hard to quantify, he’s also a leader for a young receiver room, with Pickens his camp roommate. It’s not going to be flashy but it doesn’t need to. A good camp for him.
Camp Grade: B+
Cody White
A strong summer for White, typical for him, that got off to a hot start. He caught everything in the early practices and while he may have slightly faded towards the end, his overall play was “above the line.” White made several spectacular downfield grabs using his size to box out defenders, though he was the target who offered little resistance on Joey Porter Jr.’s first interception of camp.
White led all Steelers with 380 receiving yards in camp and an extremely healthy 15.8 yards per reception. He won over the middle, he won deep, and he’s a grinding run blocker doing the dirty work in the screen game. Versatility is also a calling card, able to play inside or outside and work on multiple special teams units.
Unfortunately, White lost out on a jump ball against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, resulting in a Mitch Trubisky interception, and he dropped a pass later in the game. Even worse, he evidently was injured late in the Buffalo Bills contest and was waived/injured earlier in the week. A bitter end to a good summer.
Camp Grade: B+
Gunner Olszewski
The Anthony Chickillo of training camps, Olszewski always has strong summers before the clock strikes 12 and he turns back into a pumpkin. Credit where it’s due. Olszewski got open and saw the ball a lot this camp, similar to what happened in his first year with the team. Overall, he got open, he made tough catches, though he was prone to letting a couple hit right off his hands. Happened twice in camp.
Still, Olszewski competed hard, has boundless energy, and had a nice summer. He could be the team’s sixth wide receiver but may also be squeezed out in the numbers game, especially with Calvin Austin III likely to become the team’s punt returner. It was a good camp, but he could face some tough luck in this wide receiver room. Right now, his role is hard to define.
Grade: B+
Dez Fitzpatrick
A nice summer for Fitzpatrick. It may be a stretch to call him a camp darling, but he has traits, was available, and produced. Not a bad combination. He lacks great size but is a solid athlete and fluid route runner with change-of-direction ability and can stem at the top of his route to create space. He practiced every day, caught a hearty 20 receptions without dropping anything, and though he mostly did his damage underneath, (a 9.9 YPC) he also scored three times. Fitzpatrick just brings a well-rounded game.
Inside stadiums, his play at wide receiver wasn’t incredibly notable but he had a great tackle as a gunner on the punt team against the Bills, defeating his block and pinning Buffalo deep into their own territory. With injuries to Cody White and Hakeem Butler, there’s a serious practice squad opportunity opening up on the practice squad. He’s earned the chance to stick.
Camp Grade: B
Miles Boykin
At this stage of his career, Boykin is who he is. A No. 5 receiver and special teamer. He should secure his spot as a starting gunner, a very good one at that, but his play as a receiver has always underwhelmed. He’s not the downfield threat many (myself included) thought he could be coming out of Notre Dame, and he loses out on contested catches too often. He’s very Chase Claypool-like in that sense.
Boykin’s hands can also run hot and cold and his catch percentage was low, barely over 50 percent. The Miles Killebrew of the offense, Boykin will again be a trusty special teamer who can be used offensively in 13 personnel as a big blocker. But that’s about the extent of what he’s offering.
Camp Grade: C
Hakeem Butler
An underwhelming camp, Butler “won” the “Biggest Disappointment Award” in our training camp recap. With plenty of buzz surrounding his signing after a solid season in the XFL. Butler did show his size and make a couple of plays above his head in camp, including a nice snag on a slant for a touchdown in the early goings, but he went quiet for long stretches.
Over the final day of camp, he dropped the ball twice on consecutive targets on a day where the defense was barely even playing two-hand touch. Because of the nature of the practice, we didn’t count that day in our camp stats but if you add those two, he would’ve ended his camp with four, tying Austin for the team high.
He was waived/injured earlier in the week after missing the Bills’ game with an unknown ailment.
Camp Grade: D+
Ja’Marcus Bradley
Bradley was waived/injured with a hamstring injury midway through camp. The injury didn’t seem serious but when you’re close to the back of the roster, the team can’t wait around. He caught only five passes on 13 targets and averaged just nine yards per reception. My biggest takeaways is that I kept mixing him up with Dez Fitzpatrick early in camp.
Camp Grade: D
Dan Chisena
For the briefest of moments, Chisena felt like something of an offseason sleeper. But once Miles Boykin re-signed, Chisena’s window as a special teamer closed right on up. He had among the fewest reps of anyone at camp. He’s fast, a track star who hardly played football at Penn State, and had one nice sideline grab, but lost out on a couple of other contested chances.
Per our stats, he was targeted just seven times the entirety of camp, catching five of them, and did at least sport a strong 17.2 YPC. But he’s logged only 11 total snaps through two preseason games and shockingly, just three on special teams. His odds are remote.
Camp Grade: D
Jordan Byrd
An undrafted rookie out of San Diego State, Byrd was primarily a running back in college. But Pittsburgh played him as a full-time wide receiver throughout the summer. He only saw one true backfield carry and three jet runs totaling 26 yards.
Becoming that full-time receiver at the NFL is a tough task and Byrd’s route tree largely kept him underneath, running shallow crossers all day long. As expected, he worked out of the slot and reps were hard to come by as the last-team wide receivers. Even worse than Austin, Byrd has no catch radius and even when the ball is thrown right on him, he’s easily jostled by defenders. Multiple passes were broken up through his hands. He caught only three passes in team period all camp for just 20 yards. Kendrick Green caught as many passes as he did.
Byrd spent most of his time on the sideline and a small guy wearing a No. 16 with a rumpled jersey, most people probably thought he was just Calvin Austin.
Pittsburgh gave him a long look in the return game in their preseason opener but his opportunities were minimal and non-descript. He’ll be a quick cut.
Camp Grade: D-
STEELERS TRAINING CAMP GRADES
