Every year, the Pittsburgh Steelers seem to have players who are undeserving of a roster spot. Here are five that will make it by default in 2020.
By most accounts, the Pittsburgh Steelers stand to be an improved team in 2020. Though the analytics say that eight wins last season was more than Mike Tomlin’s team should have earned (considering the 30th ranked offense and the unsustainable 38 takeaways they earned in 2019), there are plenty of reasons to believe that this team will be better this year.
For starters, Javon Hargrave was the only major loss to the team. However, even his production was thoroughly underwhelming last season. Pittsburgh also lost players like Ramon Foster, Mark Barron, and Tyler Matakeich. But Foster was playing at a poor level at this point in his career while it was Pittsburgh’s choice to cut Barron. They would have liked to keep Matakevich as a core special teams player, but they couldn’t match the money the Buffalo Bills were willing to give him.
In their stead, Pittsburgh signed a handful of players this offseason to improve their teams. Among their most notable additions are Eric Ebron, Chris Wormley, and Stefen Wisniewski. They also beefed up their offense with rookies like Chase Claypool, Anthony McFarland, and Kevin Dotson while adding a young edge defender in Alex Highsmith to their defense.
Most importantly, the return of Ben Roethlisberger and Stephon Tuitt alone should be enough to elevate this team over .500 this year. But despite all the progress they have made on their roster this offseason, there are still a handful of players that seem like they have no business sticking around.
In 2019, these players either contributed on a very limited basis, played poorly, or a combination of both. Here are five players who shouldn’t make Pittsburgh’s roster in 2020, but are practically a lock anyway: