It was a mad rush of a day in the NFL that always managed to live up to the hype. Unfortunately, this is a very hard time for hundreds of hopeful players around the league. By 4:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, all 32 ball clubs were required to cut their rosters down to just 53 players ahead of the upcoming season. The Pittsburgh Steelers had already gotten a head start on roster moves following their Thursday night preseason finale, but plenty more needed to be made.
Heading into the day, the Steelers needed to part ways with 17 more players from their 90-man roster in order to be compliant by the deadline. They made this happen, but not exactly in the way that we all envisioned.
Their first order of business surprised us all. Omar Khan unexpectedly traded offensive lineman Kendrick Green to the Houston Texans. Most fans believed that Green didn't hold any trade value and that the team would flat-out cut him at the deadline. Instead, Khan turned Green into a 6th-round pick in 2025 from Houston.
While this was a brilliant move on the part of the Steelers, Pittsburgh still had 16 roster moves to make in the final two hours before the deadline. Here's every cut from their final wave on Tuesday as the clock ticked down for all teams to be roster-compliant:
Steelers final roster cuts:
RB Greg Bell
RB Xazavian Valladay
WR Dez Fitzpatrick
WR Jordan Byrd
TE Zach Gentry
TE Rodney Williams
OL Ryan McCollum
DL Breiden Fehoko
DL Jonathan Marshall
ED Daid Perales
ED Quincy Roche
LB Nick Kwiatkoski
CB Luq Barcoo
CB Chris Wilcox
S Trenton Thompson
S Tre Norwood
The Pittsburgh Steelers officially announced their remaining roster cuts shortly after the NFL cut-down deadline. Zach Gentry was a name leaked earlier in the afternoon, and many fans were surprised that he didn't make the initial Steelers roster.
In addition to the former number two tight end getting the axe this August, the Steelers were also forced to cut a few other notable names on the roster bubble like DT Breiden Fehoko, LB Nick Kwiatkoski, S Trenton Thompson, and S Tre Norwood.
Norwood was a former seventh-round draft pick who had stuck around and carved out a rotational role in the defensive backfield in the past. Meanwhile, Fehoko was a true 'nose tackle' type. Many in Pittsburgh media thought he would stick around on the roster as a 0-technique defensive lineman and run defender.
The decision to release Kwiatkoski was also interesting after already choosing to part ways with linebacker, Tanner Muse. While we could see one of these players being released, the Steelers now only have four off-ball linebackers on the team.
Interestingly, the Steelers elected to hang onto two punters for the time being -- Pressley Harvin and Braden Mann. It's possible that one could have an injury we don't know about or perhaps Omar Khan is using one as trade bait.
This team could still look different by the time of their first game against the 49ers in Week 1, but this is the initial Pittsburgh Steelers 53-man roster in 2023.