Pittsburgh Steelers Exit Meeting: ILB Tyler Matakevich
Experience: 9 Years (5 with Steelers)
It took a long time, but the Steelers finally reunited with Tyler Matakevich last year. A seventh-round draft pick in 2019, he played out his rookie contract here before signing with the Bills. After a successful four-year stint there, earning good pay for special teams, he returned on a one-year deal.
Despite a decorated college history, Tyler Matakevich lacks the basic physical makeup to excel at the NFL level. That is precisely why a Bronco Nagurski and Chuck Bednarik Award winner can end up lasting until the seventh round. And last he did, but he still had a successful NFL career.
After all, he is still playing after nine years, so that’s something. How many players get to say that they spent nearly a decade in the NFL? And his career isn’t necessarily over. Even if the Steelers don’t re-sign Tyler Matakevich, he can end up somewhere else.
Unfortunately, the reunion didn’t exactly go as planned. Matakevich suffered a hamstring injury in Week 2 and missed six games. While he logged a lot of special teams snaps once he returned, he didn’t appear as effective. He only recorded four tackles all year, half of which came before his injury in the second game of the season.
And the thing is, Pittsburgh is not short on special teams inside linebackers. They still have Mark Robinson, who played 300-plus snaps there last year. Reportedly, they are signing Malik Harrison, who has the most special teams snaps in the league since 2020. While Harrison could have defensive upside, the Steelers don’t need in Matakevich a third linebacker who is primarily a special teamer.
And let’s face it, Matakevich has 19 defensive snaps over the past three years, including zero with the Steelers. He knows what his role is at this stage of his career, as if that hasn’t been clear through the years.
The one simple question the Steelers have to ask if they consider re-signing Tyler Matakevich is whether his slowed production after his injury was due to lingering effects or just a drop-off in play. He only managed fewer than two full games beforehand, so that’s not a significant enough sample size. And Matakevich only registered 13 tackles combined in his final two seasons with the Bills.
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.
