It might sound odd to say but Chris Oladokun is thankful for the team that never played him. Selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the seventh round of the 2022 NFL Draft, Oladokun was the team’s fourth-string quarterback. Without a veteran like Ben Roethlisberger to take off days, there was no path for Oladokun to see the field. His few months in Pittsburgh were almost exclusively spent watching from the sidelines as Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett, and Mason Rudolph took reps ahead of him. Oladokun and the Steelers knew the writing was on the wall, leading Pittsburgh to do the best thing for Oladokun’s career. Cut him.
Speaking about his NFL journey on the Stuck In My Thoughts podcast, Oladkoun said the Steelers cut him earlier than they were obligated to. That was by design.
“Coach [Mike] Tomlin was very transparent with me,” he told host Justin Stuckey. “When I got cut, giving me an opportunity to even cut me earlier than the last cut of the last preseason game. Just so I could find another opportunity. That was a blessing in disguise. I’ll always respect and love Coach Tomlin for that. Because he really did look out for me in terms of that.”
In 2022, the NFL had multiple summer cutdowns, slowly trimming the roster to a 53-man group as opposed to today where it’s one massive cut from 90 to 53. Oladokun survived the first wave of cuts as rosters were reduced to 85. But he was released one week later when they were whittled down to 80. In the moment, it wasn’t expected.
“I’m on the field warming up. About to go through a whole workout routine. We call them the Grim Reapers…I saw him walking out towards the field and he was like, ‘Chris, they want you upstairs.'”
Warming up is about the extent of Oladokun’s Steelers experience. According to our camp stats, he threw just 15 passes across 16 practices. He received only 19 total reps in 11v11 periods, all coming over the final two days. With the Steelers needing to evaluate the group in front of him, a first-round rookie in Pickett, a new veteran in Trubisky, they couldn’t afford to give a seventh-round, fourth-string quarterback a chance.
“I didn’t even get to play in the preseason. That was tough for me but at the same time, I understood we had drafted Kenny in the first round,” Oladokun said. “We had two good veteran backups as well so they were trying to figure out that situation.”
A situation that had no place for Oladokun. But when one door closed, another immediately swung open. Within minutes of being released, his new team was on the line.
“Legit, I got cut and before I even got to my hotel, I was on the phone with the Chiefs,” he said.
One week later, Oladokun was on the Chiefs’ practice squad, a spot he’s occupied the past two seasons. Though he still hasn’t appeared in a regular-season game, he’s appeared inside a stadium. In the 2023 preseason, he threw 16 passes and his first exhibition touchdown, part of a comeback win over the Cleveland Browns.
And oh by the way, he has two Super Bowl rings. Solid consolation prizes for not seeing a down in Pittsburgh.
Though it might have *only* been a seventh-round pick, drafting Oladokun was a mistake. It was a farewell selection to Kevin Colbert, the last pick of his Steelers tenure. A player who had no path to play, let alone push to make the team. But it all worked out for Oladokun and Pittsburgh did right by giving him an immediate chance to find a new home. By being cut sooner than later, he wasn’t one of a thousand names on the waiver wire sheet. And he and his agent had more time to find a soft landing spot in Kansas City, where he’ll try to stick in 2024.
