5 Steelers players that fans should be rooting for during training camp

Mark Gilbert

At one point in time, Mark Gilbert was one of the hottest up-and-coming college cornerbacks. While Duke isn’t a huge football school, Gilbert had an incredible sophomore season in 2017, picking off six passes and totaling 35 tackles. Those kinds of numbers made him a potential draft target ahead of his junior season. Unfortunately, the positives of Gilbert’s college career ended there.

A hip injury derailed his next two seasons and he ended up opting out of the 2021 season after only playing two games. This means that over the past four years, Gilbert has only played in four total games. While he has obvious potential, the lack of recent playing time caused him to fall out of the draft. Now, he hopes to stick with the Steelers and display some of the talent that he showcased earlier in his career.

Fully healthy and hungry, Gilbert will throw his name into the reserve cornerback battle that is taking place. In theory, there is a starting outside cornerback opening, but considering his lack of playing time the past few years, it seems unlikely that he can claim that this season. If he can play like how he did a few years ago though, he has starting potential. Given the lengthy recovery time, rooting for Gilbert should be an easy thing to do once camp rolls around.

While fans will be rooting for all of the Steelers’ roster to show out during training camp, these five players stick out as having some of the more unique and incredible journeys to the team. Some of them are locked in as starters while others are fighting just to make the roster. All of their journeys have been incredible though, making them easy fan favorites once training camp officially gets underway.