The Steelers have a couple of unknown players entering their offseason program who have a chance to become a roster sleeper
With the Steelers major offseason acquisitions done with, the 90-man roster appears to be set. Looking over the roster, there are the obvious starters and backups who make up the majority of the in-season roster. There are typically about 5-8 spots that are up for grabs, where a relatively unknown player or UDFA has a chance to shine and find their way onto the active roster.
Take Fred Johnson and Tuzar Skipper last year: both players shined in the preseason as UDFAs and ended up on the Steelers active roster (although both were eventually cut). Even more prominent was Mike Hilton, a futures player in 2017 who was a stud during the offseason. He made the roster that year and went on to play in every game as well as starting four of them.
While every player doesn’t follow this formula, it is imperative to find guys like this to fill your backend roster out. Looking at this year, the Steelers are in their usual position: a few roster spots at various positions could be filled by an unknown player like this.
These players have everything working against them though, but through talent and pure grit, they transcend their status as a “camp body” and become valuable members of the roster. Looking over the team as a whole, there are quite a few players who seem like viable candidates to make the roster assuming their talent holds up during training camp. These five players all show the talent and potential to make a push for an active roster spot.