While these players are only reserves right now, these five Steelers have a great chance of ascending to a starting role by this time next year.
Developing into a starter in the NFL is no easy feat. Ignoring the already immensely minuscule odds of even making an active roster, the NFL has become a results-driven league. If a rookie doesn’t produce early in their career, fans are ready to move on. The Steelers emphasize this process though, even when it means banking on a relatively unknown player being the next man up. When this works, a team can continue to add new starters from the roster it carries each year as opposed to trying to add pricy free agents during the offseason. Here are the five Steelers that should become starters by this time next year.
Steelers Antoine Brooks Jr.
Antoine Brooks was an intriguing fit for the Steelers when he was drafted. He was a decent athlete and a great run stopper in college, but coverage concerns made him a potential move to linebacker candidate. While he sparingly played during his rookie season, he made some noise in the Week 10 win against the Bengals, where he effectively served as the slot defender due to injuries. Long-term, he doesn’t have the skills to stick in the slot, but the decent coverage he showed there leaves the door open to him being a more traditional safety.
Considering 2021 is likely Terrell Edmunds’s last season with the Steelers, the team will hope that Brooks can take over next year. He should at the very least see an expanded role this season to see if the flashes he showed in 2020 were anything more than that. He is in a great place to boost his stock this season with additional playing time, and if all goes well, he should be penciled in as the starter next season.
Steelers Buddy Johnson
Frankly, this is a player I think can make an impact later on the season if he plays similarly to how he did in college. Buddy Johnson is a twitchy athlete with good instincts and run-stopping ability. He lacks the necessary skills in the passing game, but those can certainly be developed. Even if he never gets much better in the passing game, Vince Williams has demonstrated the value a run-stopping linebacker can provide if paired with a good coverage linebacker.
Now, Johnson’s path to starting this year is likely only through injuries unless he makes it impossible to keep him off the field. That said, he should see some rotational snaps at the very least. With both Robert Spillane and Williams not under contract next season, he could cement a starting role if he plays well enough no matter how limited it may be in 2021.
Johnson has the capability to become a starter in this league due to all of the traits that made him effective in college. Had his coverage skills been better, he would have been a slam-dunk day two pick. The Steelers are good at using their inside linebackers in a variety of ways though, so even if his coverage skills don’t improve, he can still be an effective defender when paired with a Devin Bush that can function in coverage.
Steelers Pat Freiermuth
The Steelers had both short- and long-term questions surrounding the tight end position in the draft, so they were lucky to land a talent like Pat Freiermuth in the second round. While some have expectations that are sky high for him, the fact of the matter is that rookie tight ends have one of the toughest transitions to the NFL. Even some of the top tight ends in the league suffered through mediocre rookie seasons as they learned how to play at a pro level.
So anyone expecting Freiermuth to leap in front of Eric Ebron this season will be disappointed. That said, with Ebron likely off the team next year, Freiermuth can be penciled in as the starter. Even if the team targets a tight early in the draft, they will need the same transitional year that Freiermuth will have this season.
Don’t be surprised if Freiermuth has a quiet rookie season. That doesn’t mean that he won’t be a capable starter though, and a year from now he should be ready to assume that role. Unless Ebron goes down to injury, Freiermuth will only see limited snaps as the backup tight end. That said, next year should be the year fans expect to see his production with the Steelers jump.
Steelers Carlos Davis
Another late-round pick from last year’s draft, Carlos Davis figures to be a key rotational defensive lineman this season as his role expands with the team. While he can and will play all over the line, his best fit is as a nose tackle. That spot is currently occupied by the reborn Tyson Alualu, but age is catching up to the veteran. 2021 could easily be Alualu’s final season with the Steelers, and potentially in the league altogether.
This would leave Davis as the best fit to start at nose tackle heading into the next offseason. Based on his limited play in 2020, he should be more than comfortable in that role. Despite an extremely small number of defensive snaps, Davis was regularly getting a push-up front and bullying offensive lines. With his spot on the roster seemingly ahead of Isaiah Buggs, Davis should have little issue tripling his snap counts from last season.
Now, being a base nose tackle is an unglamorous job, and even if he becomes the starter, he wouldn’t be playing more than 30-40 percent of the defensive snaps. That said, the line has become a lot more fluid with their players, and Davis could certainly see some time at defensive end even though his size is lacking there. At the end of the day though, Davis should be the favorite to become the starter by next season as his solid play was hopefully only a precursor to what he can do long-term.
Steelers Mason Rudolph
Everyone’s favorite quarterback, Mason Rudolph is likely set for his final season as the Steelers backup at quarterback. With Ben Roethlisberger likely playing his final season in 2021 and with his recent contract extension, Rudolph is the favorite to be the starter a year from now. Unless the team adds a capable veteran or an early-round pick on a quarterback though, that isn’t likely to change.
At best, the Steelers will add a veteran to push Rudolph during free agency. For those expecting an early-round quarterback, don’t be surprised if they forgo that in the first round of the draft. Unless the team really tanks this year, they will likely be picking in the teens at worst. While this year saw a slew of quarterbacks fall, that was more due to their being five first-round talents at the position. This isn’t a position that typically falls, so the Steelers would have to aggressively move up to get their guy.
Now don’t be mistaken, just because Rudolph will be penciled in to start next season doesn’t mean he is the future franchise quarterback. Instead, he will likely serve as the transitional quarterback for a few years until the team can find their next option in the draft. To be fair to him as well, Rudolph has shown continual development as a player each year. He deserves a shot to be the guy for the team. It’s a win-win scenario for the Steelers, as Rudolph would either play well enough to be the guy or would be bad enough for the team to land an early pick for a quarterback.
Each year starters come and go in the NFL. While these five players are backups heading into 2021, they have the capabilities to make the leap to starter by this time next season. The Steelers will continue to develop their own into starters, and that next wave of new starters should start with this pool of players.