You have to stay on your toes if you want to work in the NFL, and that goes for everyone. Not just players and coaches, but really everyone working for the organization needs to be ready to adapt at a moment’s notice. Things are constantly changing in the NFL, and this isn’t ever more evident than when looking at the Pittsburgh Steelers this past season.
Injuries are a part of the game, and no one escapes having to deal with them. Every team, from the Super Bowl-winner to the worst team in the league, has to adjust their roster in response to players getting injured. The Steelers saw their fair share of injuries this past year, including having starting quarterback Kenny Pickett knocked out for a portion of the season, but no position saw as much rotten luck as the middle linebacker and safety positions.
Starting middle linebackers Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander both suffered major season-ending injuries. Elandon Roberts did his best to step up, but he also contended with several nagging injuries as the season went on.
Somehow, the safety depth that was a strength of the roster got gutted even worse. All-Pro player Minkah Fitzpatrick missed a large chunk of the season with a hamstring injury. Damontae Kazee received a suspension for the last three games of the season. Keanu Neal and Trenton Thompson both also finished the season on the injured reserve list. By the time the playoffs rolled along, the team was looking to sign players off the couch to contribute.
Recently, Sheldon White, who has been the Director of Pro Scouting for the Steelers since 2022, appeared on a webinar for his alma mater, the Miami University of Ohio, as part of a celebration for Black History Month. Here, White was asked about what made him passionate about his job and why he loves it, and he made mention about how those injuries from this past year challenged him.
“So I get to watch football, evaluate players all day, try to put together a team. This year was really challenging because all of our central communicators, our middle linebackers and our safeties all went down and we had to go find other guys off the street. And then that group went down and the next group went down. So there’s that challenge,” White said. “We’re gonna make sure that we are doing everything within our competitive fields to make sure we are the best team in the National Football League.”
It was clear that these injuries had a significant effect on the team, as the communication on the field during the second half of the season was not as sharp as it had been. However, credit to White and the other members of the front office for doing as good of a job as they did to patch those holes. Specifically, Eric Rowe and Myles Jack played as well as any player could considering both of them seemed to be transitioning to life after football.
With a long off-season ahead, White and the rest of the staff will have quite a bit of work to do to improve this team from one-and-done in the playoffs into a Super Bowl contender. However, all it takes is a few right moves and the switch will be flipped. Hopefully, this year the front office won’t have to be looking for their seventh different starting safety come the end of the season.
