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: ILB/DB Tariq Carpenter
Stock Value: Purchased
Reasoning: One of a handful of signings to the practice squad that are outside veterans, Carpenter is an interesting if confusing prospect. Alternately listed as both a linebacker and a defensive back, he may fall somewhere in between for the Steelers.
While we wait for, you know, anything to happen as far as the team goes, we might as well turn our focus onto a new member of the practice squad or two. We will talk about second-year Tariq Carpenter today, one of multiple players the Steelers added to their squad who are outside additions with some experience.
A 2022 seventh-round pick, Carpenter only played 16 snaps on defense for the Green Bay Packers last season, but saw 122 on special teams, registering eight tackles in the process. Like Pittsburgh, the Packers alternately described him as both a linebacker and a safety.
A productive college player out of Georgia Tech, one thing the 6-foot-3, 230-pounder does is very much fit the bill of versatility the Steelers look for, particularly in their depth. Presumably he will ultimately settle into more of a coverage linebacker role if he ever develops a defensive resume with the team, but more likely should he ever be called up, it will be to chase return men.
It is worth noting that the Steelers currently have 11 defensive backs on the 53-man roster but only four inside linebackers, and only eight linebackers in total. While they don’t always keep five inside linebackers, they do so more often than they do four.
With the team adding CB Desmond King only recently after final cuts, there is a possibility that they eventually part with another defensive back and fill that vacant roster spot with a player at another position. Many had already assumed that a fifth inside linebacker would make the team, that being Tanner Muse.
Pittsburgh’s coverage options at the inside linebacker position right now are not substantial. Elandon Roberts and Mark Robinson in particular are not likely to be trusted with a great many of such assignments. As for Cole Holcomb, he has more talent in that department than success up to this point in his career, while Kwon Alexander has probably seen better days behind him than he has ahead of him.
