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 Elandon Roberts
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: The veteran inside linebacker declared himself healthy enough to play for the Steelers’ regular-season finale, which may prove to be their final game. That is more likely if they don’t win, making him all the more willing to play through a pectoral injury he suffered against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Considering the attrition that the inside linebacker position has undergone this year, it’s somewhat remarkable what the Steelers have managed to do there. Both Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander went down with season-ending injuries.
Elandon Roberts stepped up in a big way in their absence but has had to battle injuries himself, first with a groin injury and now set to play through a pectoral injury. There’s no doubt that he’s feeling it, but he is the sort of player who will put his body on the line for his team as long as he thinks he won’t do them more harm than good.
In his absence, they have relied on Mykal Walker and Myles Jack, both of whom were added to the practice squad mid-season with no aspirations of them ever taking over a starting job. Jack is the more established player of the two, but he had retired.
Truth be told, Walker and Jack held up fairly well overall in Roberts’ absence, notable given Walker’s recent struggles and the fact that Jack hadn’t been on a football field since the preseason. But that was sort of playing with house money.
In just 599 snaps on the season, Roberts already has 100 tackles for the Steelers, seven off of a career-high he set just last year. He matched his 10 tackles for loss already and also has two and a half sacks, six hits, and who passes defensed, one of which led to an interception by Walker.
Roberts is sort of a throwback linebacker who might have been better suited to football a couple of decades ago. that’s part of the reason that Steelers fans have increasingly embraced him. He’s given everything he has to this team this year, and the mere fact that he will even be on the field today is a testament to that.
