Steelers will have a heartbreaking roster battle between twin brothers

The Pittsburgh Steelers clearly value family ties, but it’s going to be sad to see what happens this year on cutdown day. 

Earlier this summer, the Pittsburgh Steelers were the only team in the league with four sets of brothers on the 90-man roster at the same time. This is something you never see. While Pittsburgh values family ties and bloodlines as much as anyone, they may not have a choice but to part ways with these strong brotherly connections.

Just days before Steelers training camp was set to kick off, the team released running back, Trey Edmunds. Trey, as you probably know, was the brother of safety and former first-round pick, Terrell Edmunds. The Edmunds brothers spent four years together on the Steelers as they both joined the team in 2018, but the sun had finally set on Trey’s career in Pittsburgh.

The Steelers still have three sets of brothers remaining on the team, but that could very well change come September. Before the start of the season, Pittsburgh will be forced to cut roughly 40 percent of their roster to get down to just 53 players. We could be looking at another heart-breaking scenario this year.

Carlos Davis and Khalil Davis aren’t just brothers who happen to be on the same team in the NFL; they are twins who play the same position. This means that they are competing against each other for potentially one final roster spot on the interior defensive line. I can’t imagine being in this situation.

The Davis twins played alongside each other during high school and college at Nebraska. The Steelers drafted Carlos in the seventh round of the 2020 NFL Draft, and Khalil made his way to Pittsburgh’s roster after spending his first two seasons with the Buccaneers and Colts.

Davis brothers could be destined for a tragic ending with Steelers

Now we could be looking at a ‘two dogs, one bone’ situation where the fight for one of the final roster spots potential comes down to one twin brother or the other. However, it’s actually more likely that neither brother makes the final 53-man roster and they will hope to be claimed or land on the practice squad.

Last year, the Steelers kept just six interior defenders on their active roster. This year, it seems like they have seven players who are almost locks to make the team: Cameron Heyward, Tyson Alualu, Larry Ogunjobi, Chris Wormley, DeMarvin Leal, Isaiahh Loudermilk, and Montravius Adams. If neither Carlos nor Khalil Davis can’t leapfrog any of these players on the depth chart, they aren’t going to make the final roster.

If an injury or two happen to occur during training camp, One of these twins could slide onto the roster while the other is ultimately released. Of course, this would still require Khalil and Carlos to beat out bottom-of-the-roster players like Doug Costin and Henry Mondeaux.

While they aren’t the biggest or longest defensive lineman on the team, what the Davis twins do offer the Steelers is quickness, speed, and burst on the defensive interior. They both have the ability to quickly generate speed to power and to knife into the backfield and make plays.

I always root for a good underdog story, but I have a feeling that this one is going to have a tragic ending for the Davis Brothers no matter how you slice it. However, a set of twins playing the same position from the same school making it to the NFL is certainly something to be proud of.