5 players who have gone missing at Steelers training camp

  • Some players are stealing the show at Steelers camp
  • Others have essentially gone missing
Steelers, Tanner Muse
Steelers, Tanner Muse / Kevin Sabitus/GettyImages
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3. Zach Gentry, Tight end

The Steelers tight end room might be one of the strongest positional groups on the team. Everyone is talking about what a spectacular training camp Connor Heyward is having. He has shown tremendous improvement and the ability to line up all over the field. Likewise, Darnell Washington is a specimen who you can't miss, and everyone knows what Pat Freiermuth is going to bring to the table.

In the shuffle, Zach Gentry is the name that gets lost. Like Washington, Gentry is a huge human being in his own right -- standing at 6'8 1/8'' and 265 pounds. However, he has done very little to make himself stand out during Steelers training camp this year.

Gentry has never been a particularly flash player. He's not a guy who is going to create a ton of separation in the receiving game, but he's pretty refined as a blocker at this point. On 28 snaps during the preseason opener, Gentry graded out significantly worse than any other Steelers tight end to dress for this game -- including rookie Darnell Washington and the final TE on the depth chart, Rodney Williams.

This doesn't mean that Gentry is going to be out of a job completely, but the big tight end has been less impressive than several others from this stellar positional group. If Gentry wants to keep earning a hat on game day and seeing the field in two-tight end packages, he needs to be better than what he has been so far.