The Pittsburgh Steelers have begun trimming their 90-man roster earlier than expected. Though the cutdown deadline isn’t until Tuesday at 4 PM/EST, the team has announced they have released eight players.
Those eight are: CB Madre Harper, CB Nevelle Clark, DL James Nyamwaya, K B.T. Potter, LB Kuony Deng, LB Forrest Rhyne, LS Rex Sunahara, and WR Dan Chisena.
The Steelers will make additional cuts from now until Tuesday. Their roster now sits at 82. They’ll need to make 29 more cuts to reach their 53-man roster maximum.
Harper is among the most notable cuts, a long corner who saw reduced snaps throughout camp. He had intriguing length but was inconsistent in camp. Sunahara was battling Christian Kuntz for the starting long snapper job but clearly lost out. Clarke was signed late in camp and didn’t make an impact with the team. Nyamwaya was a rookie from Merrimack who saw few snaps during the summer and struggled in-game. Potter was a rookie who had a strong career at Clemson but little chance to unseat K Chris Boswell. He had a solid outing in the team’s opener against Tampa Bay but hooked a field goal wide left versus Atlanta.
Deng was signed just days ago and did not appear in Steelers’ finale against the Falcons. Rhyne was a late camp add who did not impress. Chisena had NFL experience as a special teamer but did little during the summer. Here’s what we wrote on Chisena in our post-camp recap:
“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.”
Nyamwaya’s release will cost the Steelers $4,666 in 2023 dead money and $9,334 in 2024 dead money. Potter’s release will cost the team $1,666 in 2023 dead money and $3,334 in 2024 dead money. They were two of the six undrafted free agents signed after April’s draft.
Pittsburgh will practice tomorrow and Monday before the players get a day off Tuesday, the deadline to trim their roster. The Steelers are making an early round of cuts, something they didn’t do last year under Omar Khan, but the team’s early game Thursday gave them additional lead time ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.
With the Steelers letting go just two of their three backup specialists on Saturday, P Braden Mann remains on the roster so potentially he might be traded soon. There was a report a few days ago that the Philadelphia Eagles could be a team interested in trading for him.
