Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 season is getting underway after the team finished above .500 but failing to make the postseason last year, we turn our attention to the next chapter of Steelers football and everything that entails. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on more specific contexts as we get into the season, reflecting more immediate plusses and minus rather than trends over long periods. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: WR Hakeem Butler
Stock Value: Sold
Reasoning: The big-bodied pass catcher was waived with an injury designation after suffering an injury in Saturday night’s preseason victory. While he has cleared waivers and reverted to the Steelers’ Reserve/Injured List, he will most likely receive an injury settlement shortly and be removed.
It must be nice to be big and tall if you’re a wide receiver. Even if you don’t have all the tools needed to last at the NFL level, you’re going to keep getting chances just because the next team will be convinced that maybe it can get something out of you the rest of the league didn’t.
Granted, Hakeem Butler was waived with an injury designation. But there was no way that he was going to make the 53-man roster, anyway. To begin with, he simply dropped too many passes, both during training camp and into the preseason.
If job number one of every player is to be available, job number two for the wide receiver is to consistently catch the ball. Butler didn’t do that often enough even going back to college, which is why, in spite of his very impressive physical attributes, he lasted until the middle rounds.
Years later still trying to prove himself, Butler was afforded another opportunity in May when the Steelers signed him following a strong outing in the XFL. Fans instantly latched onto him as a potential sleeper contributor thanks to his size and the fact that he finally did something good on a football field while being paid to do it.
He had his moments over the course of the offseason, making certain plays that grabbed your attention, but not enough to offset the limitations that have been present in his game since the beginning. Injuries played a big role in his career going sideways, but even if he had always stayed healthy, it’s hard to say things would have gone any differently.
That’s not to diminish his achievement. Even to earn a spot on an NFL 90-man roster is something a relative few can say. And he’s been in an NFL game before. He’s had some bad luck, things that were outside of his control.
But there has been enough over the course of his career that he did control and failed to deliver on. That’s why, even if he wasn’t waived now with an injury, he was going to be waived in the very near future anyway. Very likely he will soon be given an injury settlement and sent on his way, never to be seen inside the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex again.
