It was an exciting close to the NFL preseason for the Pittsburgh Steelers. After back-to-back impressive performances against the Buccaneers and Bills, Mike Tomlin capped things off with a 24-0 blowout win over the Falcons. Now comes one of the most difficult times of the year for the coaching staff and the front office.
At this point, we can start counting down down the hours until the Steelers are forced to cut their 90-man summer roster down to just 53 players. By 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time, all 32 teams must be roster compliant, according to Football Operations, which means cutting upwards of 40 percent of their current players.
As you can imagine, there are going to be some insanely difficult decisions to make when it comes to roster cuts. Just ahead of the deadline, I take one final stab at predicting the Pittsburgh Steelers 53-man roster for the upcoming 2023 season.
Steelers 53-man roster prediction:
Quarterback (3):
- Kenny Pickett
- Mitch Trubisky
- Mason Rudolph
Running back (3):
- Najee Harris
- Jaylen Warren
- Anthony McFarland
Wide receiver (6):
- Diontae Johnson
- George Pickens
- Allen Robinson II
- Calvin Austin III
- Myles Boykin
- Gunnar Olszewski
Tight end (4):
- Pat Freiermuth
- Darnell Washington
- Connor Heyward (FB/HB)
- Zach Gentry
Offensive tackle (3):
- Broderick Jones
- Chukwuma Okorafor
- Dan Moore Jr.
Interior offensive line (6):
- Isaac Seumalo
- James Daniels
- Mason Cole (C)
- Nate Herbig
- Kevin Dotson
- Spencer Anderson
Interior defensive line (6):
- Cameron Heyward
- Larry Ogunjobi
- Keeanu Benton
- DeMarvin Leal
- Montravius Adams
- Isaiahh Loudermilk
Edge defender (4):
- T.J. Watt
- Alex Highsmith
- Markus Golden
- Nick Herbig
Linebacker (5):
- Cole Holcomb
- Elandon Roberts
- Kwon Alexander
- Mark Robinson
- Tanner Muse
Cornerback (5):
- Patrick Peterson
- Joey Porter Jr.
- Levi Wallace
- Elijah Riley
- Chandon Sullivan
- James Pierre
Safety (5):
- Minkah Fitzpatrick
- Damontae Kazee
- Keanu Neal
- Miles Killebrew
Specialists (3):
- Chris Boswell (K)
- Presley Harvin III (P)
- Christian Kuntz (LS)
In the final rendition of my Steelers 53-man roster prediction, not much has changed. In previous versions, I have already taken the liberty of adding players like DB Elijah Riley and OL Spencer Anderson to Pittsburgh's final roster.
This time around, I did make one big change on the defensive line. Following the final preseason game against the Falcons, I decided to bump Armon Watts off the roster in favor of Montravius Adams.
When it comes down to it, there are simply too many interior defenders and not enough spots to go around. The locks to make the team at the position are Cameron Heyward, Larry Ogunjobi, Keeanu Benton, and DeMarvin Leal. After that, things get murky.
One last change on the final version of my Steelers roster prediction
Between Isaiahh Loudermilk, Montravius Adams, Armon Watts, and Breiden Fehoko, there could be as few as one interior defensive line spot left over. However, I have Pittsburgh allocating an additional resource to this positional group and going with Loudermilk and Adams to round out the roster.
For what it's worth, Watts may have been better than Adams this summer, but Pittsburgh probably doesn't need another 5-technique type. Instead, I have them going with Adams, who has starting experience at nose tackle. It's also telling that Adams was working with the first-team defense while Watts was playing much later in the preseason games.
At defensive back, I strongly considered bumping James Pierre off the Steelers roster entirely after a poor showing in the preseason finale. I was half-tempted to add S/DB Trenton Thompson instead. However, this would leave Pittsburgh thin at outside CB if someone were to go down with an injury.
If Cory Trice was healthy, Pierre would probably be gone (and he still may be). I wouldn't be surprised if the Steelers looked for an upgrade here in the waiver wire, as a flood of talent could be hitting the market all at once.
Outside of this, Kendrick Green is perhaps the most notable player that I have missing from the roster this year. After what we have seen from him in his third summer with the team, his former third-round draft status should not be enough to save his roster spot. I have the Steelers going with versatile rookie, Spencer Anderson, as my last spot on the offensive line.
It's so hard to make final roster predictions with 100 percent accuracy. The biggest challenge comes down to predicting where the Pittsburgh Steelers will elect to keep some added depth at the bottom of their roster. We'll soon find out how close this prediction is to what will actually happen by Tuesday.