Pittsburgh Steelers Exit Meeting: DL Logan Lee
Experience: 1 Year
The Pittsburgh Steelers used a sixth-round pick on Logan Lee but didn’t see much of him. After a relatively minor injury in training camp, he spent his rookie season on IR. The Steelers did open his 21-day window late in the year, but likely without any intention of activating him. It did, at least, give him the opportunity to get on the field, a head start on the offseason.
An older rookie—24 by the time the 2024 season started—Logan Lee is a fairly typical Steelers defensive lineman. Basically, he is more or less what you might expect in terms of style of play from an Iowa player. But he is an Iowa player drafted in the sixth round, of course, not exactly an elite athlete.
To Lee’s advantage is the Steelers’ dissatisfaction with their defensive line room. Only Cameron Heyward and Keeanu Benton are locks to remain going into 2025. They will likely give DeMarvin Leal another chance, but Isaiahh Loudermilk is a pending free agent. Larry Ogunjobi and Dean Lowry are potential cuts, perhaps Montravius Adams as well.
In other words, if the Steelers overhaul their defensive line room, Logan Lee has a better chance of sticking. His couple weeks of practice at the end of the season at least gave them something to look at, and despite the down time, I don’t think they would weigh that too heavily against him if they weren’t particularly impressed with what they saw.
Lee basically came out and said that the Steelers redshirted him last year, admitting his injury wasn’t serious. Of course, it’s not technically against the rules to leave a player on IR once healthy. A player only needs to have an injury that is likely to cause him to miss a short period of time to qualify for IR. Lee qualified for that, but they never had cause to bring him up to the 53-man roster. So basically it’s no longer against the rules to “stash” players as long as they have at least a minor ailment.
Now, will Logan Lee help the Steelers in 2025? That’s a big question, and one that’s hard to answer. We hardly saw him last season, so we don’t know where he is in his development. He wasn’t exactly a high-ceiling guy coming out of Iowa. But as long as he can learn the Steelers’ system, and play within it and with discipline, he could provide depth, even if he is the guy who doesn’t dress unless there are injuries.
The Pittsburgh Steelers find themselves at home, the inevitable result of another early playoff exit. This is a repeated pattern for the organization, with no clear end in sight. As the Steelers conduct their own exit meetings, we will go down the roster conducting our own. Who should stay, and who should go, and how? Who should expect a bigger role next season, and who might deserve a new contract? We’ll explore those questions and more in these articles, part of an annual series.
