Will ILB Cole Holcomb play a down for the Steelers in 2024?
The Steelers signed ILB Cole Holcomb to a three-year, $18 million contract in 2023. Thus far, he has not even made it through half a season. The veteran linebacker suffered a major knee injury in Week 9 last year and spent the rest of the season on the Reserve/Injured List.
Since then, the Steelers have been very cautious when updating his status. Recently, head coach Mike Tomlin shared he had a “target date of readiness” for Holcomb but did not elaborate. And then they signed free agent Patrick Queen to a three-year, $41 million contract.
A couple of weeks back, Holcomb shared a few brief clips of himself working out four and a half months out from his injury. It’s impossible to ascertain anything from those clips about his availability to play NFL football, however, by September.
Notably, the Steelers are still exploring the veteran inside linebacker market. On top of that, they’ve been doing their homework on the 2024 NFL Draft prospects at the position. There’s a good chance they plan to add another significant player here.
In addition to Queen, the Steelers have Elandon Roberts as a starter. Roberts played their fiddle to Holcomb and Kwon Alexander for the first half of the 2023 season before their injuries. However, both went down in consecutive weeks in the middle of the year, forcing him into a premiere role.
After that, they dealt with the likes of Mykal Walker, Blake Martinez, Mark Robinson, and Myles Jack. Of those four, only Robinson is still under contract, and he’s likely here primarily for special teams.
We don’t really even know the extent of Holcomb’s injury. Many feel, however, that the Steelers are planning to be without him out of more than an abundance of caution. They still have him under contract for the next two years, but they can find ways out of it if he can’t play. They did it with David DeCastro a couple of years ago.
The Steelers’ 2023 season has been put out of its misery, ending as so many have before in recent years: a disappointing, blowout playoff loss. The only change-up lately is when they miss the playoffs altogether. But with the Buffalo Bills stamping them out in the Wildcard Round, they have another long offseason ahead.
The biggest question hanging over the team is the quarterback question. Does Russell Wilson make them a Super Bowl-caliber team, or are they wasting a year? Will he play just one season in Pittsburgh before moving on, or the Steelers moving on from him? How will the team address the depth chart?
The Steelers are swirling with more questions this offseason than usual, frankly, though the major free agent list is less substantial than usual. It’s just a matter of…what happens next? Where do they go from here? How do they find the way forward?
