Like Mykal Walker, the Pittsburgh Steelers are right where we are: sitting at home being mad. Although they managed to make the playoffs in 2023, they lost in the first round. It has now been seven years without a postseason victory, the longest drought in franchise history. The question is what to do next.
The first step is always taking stock of what happened and what is left. That’s part of the exit meeting process, in which coaches meet with each player. They discuss the season and their expectations moving forward—and potentially their role within it.
While we might not know all the details about what goes on between head coach Mike Tomlin and his players during these exit meetings, we do know how we would conduct those meetings if they were let up to us. So here are the Depot’s exit meetings for the Steelers’ roster following the 2023 season.
Player: Mykal Walker
Position: Inside Linebacker
Experience: 4 Years
The fact that Mykal Walker played nearly 300 defensive snaps during the 2023 regular season for the Steelers says a lot. For one thing, it says they weren’t healthy at the inside linebacker position, and we can readily corroborate that. They lost Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander to season-ending injuries in consecutive weeks in the middle of the season.
Walker became the next man up alongside Elandon Roberts as they pulled veterans off the couch to try their luck. They gave Blake Martinez a quick spin before quickly realizing he wasn’t the answer, but then found some success in the form of an old flame. Myles Jack, who started for the defense in 2022, returned and played decent ball late in the season.
Accordingly, Walker played less. He finished the season with five starts in eight games, recording 33 tackles with an interception. Roberts caused the interception on a tipped pass, though; in fact, he struggled quite a bit in coverage.
Teams increasingly targeted him heavily in the passing game before the Steelers started reducing his workload. Via Pro Football Reference, Walker gave up 19 catches on 26 targets for 260 yards, allowing four touchdowns. He also proved an ineffective blitzer and missed a handful of tackles.
Now an unrestricted free agent, the Steelers aren’t going to bang down Walker’s door to re-sign him. Neither will anybody else. Pittsburgh scooped him up off a practice squad because it needed bodies at the inside linebacker position.
They already have Roberts, with Holcomb eventually returning from injury, along with Mark Robinson. They are signing Patrick Queen today to take over the every-down role, a surprisingly bold move for the Steelers. Needless to say, if Walker winds up back in Pittsburgh, he is obviously signing no more than a Veteran Salary Benefit deal.
