Titans EDGE Ola Adeniyi
Unlike Mark Gilbert and Quincy Roche, Ola Adeniyi wasn’t released before making the final roster. Rather, the Steelers simply elected he wasn’t worth bringing back to camp in 2021 despite earning just a $1 million base salary from the Tennessee Titans over the offseason. This would prove to be a mistake.
Adeniyi has been the best of these three young players the Steelers elected not to hold onto. In fact, you can argue that he has outplayed Bud Dupree for the Titans so far (who happens to have an $82.4 million contract).
Ola is a somewhat limited athlete, but he plays with terrific power and leverage around the edge. He’s been very solid in Tennesse’s heavy edge defender rotation — earning 2.5 sacks and 7 tackles for a loss, 7 QB hits, and 9 pressures on just 23 percent of defensive snaps through his first 10 games with the Titans, via Pro Football Reference.
Hindsight being 20/20, the Steelers would love to have Ola Adeniyi right now — especially if they knew the way things were going to play out with Melvin Ingram before the trade deadline.
The decision not to hang onto these three players isn’t going to make or break this franchise, but these were three guys that fans wanted to see make the team and the Steelers were wrong for letting them walk away.