Player: ILB Mark Robinson
Stock Value: Down
Reasoning: Mark Robinson is not unfamiliar with competition, but he faces his fiercest yet since the Steelers first drafted him. While the inside linebacker room is loaded generally, they also added direct special teams competition. In the seventh round, they drafted Carson Bruener, who is tailor-made for special teams. The son of former Steelers tight end and current Steelers scout Mark Bruener, it’s in his DNA.
Mark Robinson has already played three years in the NFL, which is impressive enough as it is. A seventh-round pick barely versed in his position as a former running back, he has carved out a niche. Over the past three years, he has turned himself into a quality special-teams player.
But heading into the final year of his rookie contract, there just may not be room for Robinson. The Steelers already have Patrick Queen, Payton Wilson, Malik Harrison, and Cole Holcomb at inside linebacker. Holcomb is the only one they might even consider releasing, and I don’t see that.
Then there is Carson Bruener, a seventh-round pick for a team suddenly obsessed with keeping its draft picks. Bruener is now a second-generation Steelers, and his dad is in the scouting department. How is Mark Robinson supposed to compete with that?
Well, the same way he has competed since the Steelers first drafted him: hitting anything in front of him. All he can do is play his way into a roster spot, as he did back in 2023 and each year since. It’s unlikely the Steelers carry both Mark Robinson and Carson Bruener—but not impossible. Especially if they only keep four outside linebackers, which is a possibility.
Special teams is a category on its own, with a unique set of “starters”. If Mark Robinson and Carson Bruener are both guys who can give them 300-plus quality snaps, they can find room. But it won’t be easy, and this is certainly Robinson’s hardest challenge yet. Over the past two seasons, he has forced three fumbles. He will need to keep up that kind of playmaking this offseason, I suspect, if he wants to hang around.
With the new league year underway and the Steelers turning their roster over, it’s once again time to “take stock”. It took a while, but we finally saw some of that change the team talked about after the season ended. Certainly, the move to trade for WR DK Metcalf qualifies as a change, not to mention the accompanying contract. Oh, and they also traded some guy named George Pickens, which people found significant.
There is still a long way to go before we know what this Steelers team is going to look like. The dust is settled on both free agency and the 2025 NFL Draft. What other moves might the team make, perhaps unexpected acquisitions or departures? If they traded for one player, they could certainly trade for another, or trade one away. This is a Steelers team starving for postseason success, but how desperate are they for a playoff win in 2025?
