Player: DL Keeanu Benton
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: The Steelers are very high on DL Keeanu Benton as he enters his second season, as are his teammates. While there is only so much a lineman can show without pads, he stood out during spring practices. Fellow defensive lineman Cameron Heyward offered that he could be as good as Javon Hargrave, which is high praise.
The Pittsburgh Steelers decided back in 2020 that they could not afford to pay Javon Hargrave. They already had Cameron Heyward and Stephon Tuitt on the defensive line, and Hargrave didn’t play enough snaps. Naturally, they had no idea Tuitt would soon retire following a family tragedy, but they don’t want to make the same mistake with Keeanu Benton.
Benton, a second-round pick in 2023, is only going into his second season, granted, so he has two more years to play before they can even talk about a contract extension. But he is arguably every bit as talented as Hargrave—and more traditionally built.
Heyward has already said that Benton “can be just as good as Hargrave was, though not without a caveat. He pointed out there is a lot of work that goes into being that good, and Hargrave has sustained that.
But really, the Steelers don’t even need Keeanu Benton to be their next Javon Hargrave. They just need him to be their first Keeanu Benton. He already proved as a rookie that he has the talent to compete at this level. For now, it’s just about maturing and building up his fundamentals, gaining experience.
The next thing for him to work on is finishing plays. Benton has a great get-off and can win against anybody, but playing from whistle to whistle is the challenge. As Heyward suggested, he is not there yet, but he should experience a big second-year jump in 2024.
As the season progresses, Steelers players’ stocks rise and fall. The nature of the evaluation differs with the time of year, with in-season considerations being more often short-term. Considerations in the offseason often have broader implications, particularly when players lose their jobs, or the team signs someone. This time of year is full of transactions, whether minor or major.
A bad game, a new contract, an injury, a promotion—any number of things affect a player’s value. Think of it as a stock on the market, based on speculation. You’ll feel better about a player after a good game, or worse after a bad one. Some stock updates are minor, while others are likely to be quite drastic, so bear in mind the degree. I’ll do my best to explain the nature of that in the reasoning section of each column.
