4 Steelers offseason decisions from 2023 that already look like a disaster

Steelers disaster #3: Giving Larry Ogunjobi his new deal

I was never a huge fan of this deal when it was announced. Larry Ogunjobi is a fine player by all accounts, but he hasn’t gotten back to the dominant play style that he had with the Bengals and late in his Browns career. It made sense why last year, as he was coming off an injury and adjusting to a new scheme. That said, his three-year deal seemed risky.

This was amplified when Ogunjobi missed most of training camp with an injury. He hasn’t been the healthiest player as of late, and the hope was for a full offseason to get acclimated to this defense. Instead, he entered the year with more questions.

To be clear, Ogunjobi’s play hasn’t been bad by any means. Despite the injury, he has still been a consistent player on defense for this unit. He even logged an early season sack against the Browns and had arguably his best game in a Steelers uniform that week. The issue is, he hasn’t been dominant, and you would have liked to see more from the veteran on his new deal.

To be fair, the defensive line lost their lynchpin in Cameron Heyward in the first game of the season. He likely would have elevated Ogunjobi’s game, as he would have taken some of the focus off of him. That said, you pay your top players to be stars, and I haven’t seen that yet. Considering the investment, this doesn’t look like a great addition.