The Steelers are now back at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, facing down a long regular season that looks a lot more promising given how things have gone leading up to it. Finishing just above .500 last year, they anticipate being able to compete with any team in the league this season with second-year QB Kenny Pickett leading the way.
They’ve done a great deal to address what they identified as their shortcomings during the offseason, which included addressing the offensive and defensive lines as well as the secondary and the inside linebacker room, which is nearly entirely different from last year. The results have been positive so far.
Even well into the regular season and beyond, there are going to be plenty of questions that need answered. When will the core rookies get to play, or even start? Is the depth sufficient where they upgraded? Can they stand toe-to-toe with the Bengals and the other top teams in the league? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout the season, as we have for many years.
Question: How many new faces will be added to the 53-man roster before the start of the regular season?
The Steelers whittled their roster down to 53 players by 4 PM yesterday, but we know this is not the exact list of 53 players that will be on the roster when the regular season opens. There is one very simple way that we know this with reasonable assurance: they have two punters.
Unless there is an undisclosed injury involved, there is no scenario that makes sense in which the Steelers should have both Pressley Harvin III and Braden Mann under contract for the 53. Because of that, we can reasonably assume that one of them will be gone relatively soon, one way or another.
The prevailing theory, and by far the most likely, is that the Steelers are attempting to execute a trade of some kind. Whether for draft resources or another player—there are rumors of a play-for-player trade in the works—someone who isn’t currently on the team will be by the time the Steelers play the San Francisco 49ers.
Could that play come through the waiver wire? The Steelers have not successfully claimed any players after initial cutdowns since 2016 when they landed QB Zach Mettenberger, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t try. We have had occasional reports over the years about their submitting waiver claims, but they’re usually too high in the priority order to land them.
Pittsburgh typically makes at least one trade for a player around this time of year. Last year it was OLB Malik Reed and OL Jesse Davis. A year earlier, they added CB Ahkello Witherspoon. Of course, they could make a veteran addition as well, like when they brought back S Sean Davis and QB Joshua Dobbs after they were let go in 2020.
