The Pittsburgh Steelers have a few lesser-known players who could come out of nowhere to surprise us during training camp this year.
It’s not hard to take a stab at the Pittsburgh Steelers starting lineup for the 2022 season. While there are a few players entering positional battles to earn a spot atop the depth chart, most positions we already have figured out.
But what about the players who could earn sizable roles coming off the bench? This is where the competition usually gets much tighter. While they haven’t earned a ton of snaps to this point, these three Steelers could potentially earn sizable roles on the team in 2022:
Steelers LB Buddy Johnson
Here’s a player you might have forgotten was even on the team. The Steelers spent a fourth-round pick on Texas A&M linebacker, Buddy Johnson, in the 2021 NFL Draft. However, the young linebacker essentially redshirted during his rookie season last year.
Johnson earned 59 snaps on special teams during the first two weeks, then again in Weeks 12-13. However, the rookie was inactive for most of the season — appearing in just four games and earning just 6 defensive snaps, via Pro Football Reference.
That could change in 2022. Now with an offseason to get acclimated to the playbook, the former fourth-round draft choice could carve out a sizable role with the Steelers as a sub-package linebacker, if all goes well. Johnson has decent size (6’0 1/2” and 230 pounds) to go with excellent athletic traits (92nd percentile athlete, via Relative Athletic Score).
With a bit more refinement, he could be in line for a much larger role in 2022. Perhaps he could even become a candidate to replace Devin Bush following the season if the former first-round pick elects to sign elsewhere.