Why the Steelers lack good UDFAs in recent history
By Edward Hunt
The Steelers don’t seem to be getting much UDFA help. Here I will share my reasoning why that is.
If you are a Steeler fan, you are probably tired of seeing all the good undrafted free agents go to other teams. Certainly, it could help the Steelers roster if they could land some of these bigger names. The reason I don’t think the Steelers land many of these names is because the undrafted free agents have to compete with tryout players to even get a shot at the 90 man roster. There are also secondary reasons like the Steelers already have a lot of roster talent and the Steelers only sign undrafted free agents that are high character guys.
The Steelers like to sign their tryout players. In 2019, the Black & Gold signed five tryout players. This has been a recent phenomenon as names like Damoun Patterson and Terrance Garvin were also tryout players. The good thing about this competition for the 53 man roster is they have been able to choose from more players and there have been success stories because of it. It almost expands the roster past 90 in the offseason.
The problem is that there are also five players who were signed that lost their spot to compete for a job with the Steelers in camp. Now those players will have to get signed to a 90 man roster after the rosters have been filled. The problem for fringe players like undrafted free agents is getting signed by the Steelers doesn’t give you the security that you will get to go to training camp. I believe agents are seeing that and thus an equal offer from another team is more valuable. There is also an equal budget of signing bonuses for undrafted free agents so a competitive disadvantage like lack of job security makes it hard for the Steelers to sign players.
There are also secondary reasons that undrafted free agents don’t sign with the Steelers. One of them is that the Steelers have a lot of roster talent. It’s hard to quantify roster talent, but it seems the former iron men have been able to develop players as backups and they then become starters. Another indication of the Steelers roster talent is the success the Black & Gold have had under Mike Tomlin. The team has not gone less than 8-8 under Mike Tomlin. That is an indication that they have roster talent.
The other secondary reason that Pittsburgh doesn’t sign a lot of high profile undrafted free agents is that they seem to value character over talent with undrafted free agents. This is good because it fills your locker room with players with good character, but it prevents you from signing guys with talent. The players who make headlines in the draft process are the guys with talent. It’s hard for the fans to see what happens in the locker room. The problem is those high character guys don’t stick around because they don’t have the talent to make the 53. The guys who get signed by the tryout process are timely and execute drills in shorts well.
This is not to discredit the Steelers system. It could an advantage to invest in the tryout process. The Black & Gold have had success finding tryout players despite the lack of finding undrafted free agent signings. I do see an opportunity to improve their process of finding undrafted free agents and that is through giving undrafted free agents the security to make it to training camp after being signed after the draft.