With the Steelers making roster decisions on who will and won’t start, these four players aren’t deserving of a second chance and shouldn’t be counted on.
The Steelers enter the offseason with a slew of roster needs and not enough resources to fill them. That said, given this team is set for some semblance of a rebuild, they shouldn’t settle for players that disappointed last year retaining their roles.
While there is nothing wrong with giving players second chances, counting on them to make big strides after showing that they aren’t able to would be unwise. Here are the four Steelers that don’t deserve a second chance in 2022.
Steelers Mondeaux
When assessing Henry Mondeaux, you have to look at his film from two perspectives. As a pure defender at either end or nose tackle, he isn’t very good. He is limited as a pass rusher and gets bullied out of the way on run plays. When he started at nose tackle the run defense saw its worst regression. On the other hand, he can play any phase of special teams, which adds to his value. That said, the Steelers can’t expect Mondeaux to be any sort of a contributor next season.
While there is nothing wrong with keeping Mondeaux as the sixth or seventh option for his special team’s ability, he shouldn’t see the field on defense. As well, there are more talented special teamers given their better athleticism than Mondeaux. The team can’t go into next season expecting him to be a significant contributor on defense.
Steelers Banner
This one stings on a personal level because seeing Zach Banner develop into a potential starter was a lot of fun. He came into camp almost being out of the league, developed into the eligible offensive lineman, and was later slated to start at right tackle. The past two seasons have derailed that growth, as injuries in 2020 limited him in 2021. Now it’s hard to justify keeping him on the roster.
While tearing his ACL in 2020 was unfortunate, the team still viewed him as their stater as evident by the sizable extension they gave him last season. Injuries reappeared though, and by the time he was healthy, the line had already been playing together for half a season. That said, given the struggles this unit had, the fact that he never got to start is pretty disappointing.
We would be having an entirely different conversation if Banner was on a cheap deal close to the veteran minimum. Instead, he is an overpaid backup right now that can’t be kept at his current salary. Unless he takes a pay cut or the Steelers announce that he is the starting right tackle (neither seems that likely) then Banner needs to be cut. You can’t pay him that kind of money again to let him sit on the bench.
Steelers Schobert
A move I thought was a steal at the time, Joe Schobert never had the impact many hoped he would on defense last season. An extremely smart and instinctive player, he never showed the ability to read plays and fill his gaps as he had before. Add in the horrible play of Devin Bush and the off-ball linebackers were easily one of, if not the, worst positional groups on this team in 2021.
Similar to Banner, Schobert really doesn’t benefit from his contract. The Steelers can clear eight million dollars off their cap space by cutting him and given the fact that they will need significant resources to fill their roster holes, the move almost seems like a no-brainer. Schobert didn’t live up to that kind of a deal in 2021 and shouldn’t be paid that much if he is somehow retained.
Schobert played similarly to how Jon Bostic did a few seasons ago. Both flashed positive traits but consistently lacked the big play needed to excel at the position. The difference is, Schobert is getting paid almost three times as much as Bostic was. At his price, you can’t keep Schobert and expect him to make huge improvements to his game. It is better to cut ties and move on.
Steelers Green
To be clear, this is in no way implying that the Steelers should part ways with Kendrick Green after his poor rookie season. While he was the worst starter of a pretty horrible line, he was only a rookie and should be counted on to develop some heading into his second season. That said, the team can’t go into 2022 with Green as a projected starter.
Doing so would be disastrous, as it would be a sign that the team didn’t add an improvement at either guard or center. Green shouldn’t be cut, but he shouldn’t enter training camp as a projected starter either. That will have to be a job that he earns instead of being given it (like he was last season). If he can show in camp that he is over his struggles, then by all means start him, but that has to be shown, not expected.
A lot of Green’s issues stem from his size as well, something that won’t change for the second-year player. If he can develop his technique and learn to get past his size, he can reenter this lineup. Until then though, this team has to view him as a backup. They tried shoehorning him into a starting role to horrible results. The same mistakes can’t be made in 2022.
The Steelers enter the 2022 offseason with a slew of issues and unique problems. That said, banking on any of these four players being answers next year would be a mistake. While each has flashed something before, expecting a 180 from 2021 is a bit rich. These four players don’t deserve a second chance on this roster right now.