PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – With seven new Steelers after the three-day NFL Draft, who are the current Steelers that may have lost a job, lost a starting spot or at least lost snaps in 2023?
New left tackle
You don't draft a Broderick Jones in the first-round without starting him at left tackle. He may not be the starter from day one of OTAs, mini-camp or even Training Camp, but he will start. Sure, Jones practiced on the right side in college, he will be the starting left tackle. The question now is what the battle is like on the right side. In his second full season of starting every game, Dan Moore improved, at least in the Pro Football Focus metrics, and fairly substantially from ranked 72 to 57. That put him three spots ahead of the starting right tackle from last season, Chukwuma Okorafor, who improved from 61 to 60 last season.
The difference between them is salary. In the second year of his contract, Okorafor will make $13.083 million in 2023 ($10.16 million is a dead cap cost). His dead cap in 2024 is only three million. Meanwhile Moore is on a rookie deal and will hit $1.1 million against this year and in the final year of his contract in 2024, the dead cap is $174,000 each season according to spotrac.com. You would expect a starting change this year, but next season they could save $8.8 million by releasing Okorafor. Both likely will remain on the team this year. They are fighting as much to be the starting right tackle this season, but also for a roster spot next season. Okorafor would have to win that battle by a wide margin.
TE battle
Zach Gentry said after the season he was going to see what the market had to offer as he became a free agent for the first time. He decided to come back to the Steelers on a one-year contract. The 6'8", 265-pound tight end looking to continue his growth after 13 starts in 2022. Like the tackles, expect Gentry to remain on the roster even with Pat Freiermuth and Connor Heyward, but what of his future? The drafting of 6'7", 264-pound Darnell Washington makes for a cheaper, controllable option. They both are outstanding blockers, but Washington is much more polished as a tight end having played the position his whole college career. He also showed at Georgia a better ability to release downfield.
Connor Heyward is another tight end on the roster, although the second-year player he now listed as tight end/fullback. There were strong indications the 6', 230-pounder was heading at least to a hybrid fullback role last season. Make that transition official with the drafting of Washington.
Corner
Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said it emphatically, Joey Porter, Junior was not drafted 32nd overall to have a redshirt year. Porter is going to play and likely to earn a starting spot with likely Patrick Peterson, but the chance of Levi Wallace with Peterson playing inside as an option. Expect to see those three on the field at various times, which means Ahkello Witherspoon is battling with James Pierre and potentially Madre Harper or Duke Dawson for what is left.
There was hope Witherspoon would build on the end of the 2021 season. The 28-year-old would only play in eight games but led the team with three interceptions including two against Kirk Cousins in a start at Minnesota.
Witherspoon would start the first three games of 2022 with 15 tackles, a pick and two passes defended. A hamstring injury forced him to miss 13 games and a few snaps in a 14th.
Both Witherspoon and Wallace's contracts are up after this year. The 27-year-old Wallace started nine of his 15 games last year with 48 tackles and four interceptions. What makes this intriguing is their contracts for 2023 are identical according to spotrac.com, same with their $1.48 million dead cap hit. There is still a chance for Witherspoon, but he would have to-stay healthy, beat out Wallace by a good margin and keep Pierre at bay. It would cost the Steelers nothing to release Pierre and save $1.3 million.
Defensive line
Free agency also played in here with Larry Ogunjobi coming back and the add of Breiden Fehoko. The Steelers also using a second-round pick on Wisconsin nose tackle Keeanu Benton, a noted run stopper with the belief he can eventually do more. There aren't as many snaps for true nose tackles and Benton played 80-85% in college. This will impact Montravius Adams. Like Witherspoon, Adams looked to grow from the end of 2021. Picked up after being waived by New Orleans, Adams would start four of his six Steelers games in 2021 with positive results. The 6'3", 27-year-old started the last seven games of 2022 but only once all season played over 50% of snaps. His salary is $3.2 million with a dead-cap hit of $732,500. If the Steelers need $2.5 million, Adams needs to be playing his best or he could be a casualty.
Every camp brings new stories, they are some of the battles we will follow throughout the spring and summer.
