- The Steelers should draft a quarterback this year, Paul Ziese of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes. To many, this year’s crop of quarterbacks is not an inspiring one, but Zeise likes DeShaun Watson or DeShone Kizer enough to advocate for their selection at No. 30, if they’re there. Roethlisberger still stands as one of the league’s best QBs, but he turns 35 in March and the team may want to think about grooming his next replacement. By the same token, I would be surprised if they use their first-round pick to take a signal caller.
Suspended Steelers wide receiver Martavis Bryant has officially applied for reinstatement to the NFL, reports Aaron Wilson of The Houston Chronicle (via Twitter). It was reported in mid-January that the embattled wideout would apply for reinstatement “in the near future.” Bryant won’t be eligible to return until March, one year after the NFL suspended him for violating its substance abuse policy.
Although Bryant’s Steelers made it all the way to the AFC title game, the 2016 campaign will go down as a lost season for the 25-year-old. Bryant is serving his second suspension since he entered the pros in 2014.
Previously, Bryant sat four games in 2015 for multiple substance abuse violations. Marijuana usage was at the root of the penalty then, but Bryant’s current suspension came as a result of multiple missed drug tests. Bryant elected against appealing the ban, as he deemed it an “unwinnable” situation, and decided to enter rehab for depression issues.
If Bryant’s off-field troubles are behind him and he does come back next season, his presence could be a boon to an already high-octane Steeler attack. However, there’s no guarantee the franchise would welcome him back.
“We are very disappointed that Martavis Bryant has put himself in this current situation of being suspended by the League,” the Steelers said in a statement last March. He is at a crossroads of his professional life, and he needs to understand significant changes need to occur in his personal life if he wants to regain his career as a Pittsburgh Steeler. We are hopeful that Martavis will take the necessary steps to develop the discipline in his personal life to become a successful player and a good teammate.”
When on the field, Bryant has been a major threat. The ex-Clemson Tiger caught 50 passes for 765 yards and eight touchdowns in just 11 games last season. That came after he hauled in eight scores and averaged a whopping 21.1 yards per catch in 10 games as a rookie. All told, the 6-foot-4, 211-pounder has amassed 76 receptions, 14 scores and posted a 17.3 YPC in 21 games. Should he don a Pittsburgh uniform in 2017, he’d join an Antonio Brown-led receiving corps that also includes Eli Rogers and Sammie Coates.
- Steelers safety Jordan Dangerfield, an exclusive rights free agent, has agreed to sign his $540K tender for 2017, according to Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He’s the third in-house player this week the Steelers have secured for next season, joining wide receiver Cobi Hamilton and fullback Roosevelt Nix. The 26-year-old Dangerfield went undrafted in 2013, but it took him until 2016 to see any NFL action. In his 13-game campaign, Dangerfield started twice and took part in 51.1 percent of the Steelers’ special teams snaps.
The NFL is “looking into” whether the Steelers violated its policy in not listing running back Le’Veon Bell on their injury reports in recent weeks, including before last Sunday’s AFC championship game, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter (Twitter link). Bell departed the title game early because of a groin injury, and he then revealed after the Steelers’ 36-17 loss to New England that it had had been a problem for weeks. At no point did the Steelers disclose the ailment, though, which is why the league is investigating the matter.
Sherman, meanwhile, believes “it would be odd, out of the norm” for the Seahawks to receive punishment, and he doesn’t expect the league to discipline the Steelers. “Le’Veon said he’s got a groin (issue) for weeks, they’re going to get a warning,” he told Conor Orr of NFL.com. “Andrew (Luck) played with cracked ribs for a whole year (back in 2015). You see what I’m saying?”
As injuries and suspensions affected the Steelers’ pass-catching contingent this season, they became more reliant on lesser-known commodities. They will bring back one of them after agreeing to a one-year deal with wide receiver Cobi Hamilton, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com tweets. The sides came to an agreement earlier this week.
Hamilton resided as an exclusive rights free agent entering the Steelers’ offseason, and this deal is the second Pittsburgh signing today. The team signed ERFA Roosevelt Nix as well.
A former sixth-round Bengals pick in 2013, Hamilton did not record a reception from 2013-15 and spent the first half of this season on the Steelers’ practice squad. But the team promoted him and saw the 26-year-old target start eight games, catch 17 passes for 234 yards and score two touchdowns during the regular season. He and UDFA Eli Rogers became the Steelers’ top auxiliary receivers after the suspension of Martavis Bryant and injuries to Markus Wheaton and Sammie Coates. Hamilton caught Ben Roethlisberger‘s only touchdown pass in the AFC championship game on what became a rough day for Pittsburgh’s passing attack.
Wheaton is a UFA and Bryant has an uncertain road back to reinstatement, so Hamilton could again compete for a spot as a relevant cog in Todd Haley‘s offense.
- The Steelers could determine another year with Ladarius Green is too risky, Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes. Green will enter his sixth season after experiencing a disastrous fifth, playing in just six games. However, he averaged 50.7 yards per game and made several big plays when healthy. But concussion issues dogged Green to the point Mike Tomlin said a decision needs to be made about the tight end. “I don’t have an assessment, long-term, of where he is,” Tomlin said. “I think that’s one of the chief medical decisions and questions that we have to have moving forward, in terms of guys getting an assessment of their overall health and what it means for 2017.” A Green cut will cost the Steelers $3.56MM in dead money while saving the team barely $2MM. Green said earlier this week he does not intend to retire.
- Antonio Brown‘s constant desire for targets has rubbed many teammates the wrong way, but his occasionally selfish ways aren’t viewed as detrimental to the team, Gerry Dulac of the Post-Gazette writes. Ben Roethlisberger has told the All-Pro wideout to “shut up” multiple times on the field, and since-retired tight end Heath Miller told Brown to “stop complaining about not getting the ball” at a 2015 practice. However, Dulac notes Brown not a problem in the locker room. This could be a key point as Brown’s payday looms.
Exclusive rights free agent Roosevelt Nix is re-signing with the Steelers, his agent, Bill Parise, told Jacob Klinger of PennLive.com. Nix will ink a one-year deal worth $615K – a mild increase over the $525K he made in 2016.
Nix, 24, originally signed with the Falcons as an undrafted linebacker in 2014. The ex-Kent State Golden Flash switched to fullback in an effort to make the team, but it didn’t work. Nix then spent some of the 2014 season in the Arena Football League before catching on as a fullback in Pittsburgh in 2015.
Nix has only received four touches – all receptions – in two years as a Steeler, though he has appeared in 25 regular-season games and amassed five starts. He was in on 9.2 percent of the Steelers’ offensive snaps and 38.2 percent of their special teams plays in 2016. If Nix makes the team again next season, indications are he’ll continue to block for star running back Le’Veon Bell – albeit on a limited basis.
Here are the latest reserve/futures contract signings from around the NFL. These deals will go into effect on the first day of the 2017 league year, with players joining their respective club’s offseason 90-man rosters:
Denver Broncos
New Orleans Saints
- LS Jesse Schmitt (two-year deal)
New York Giants
- OL Adam Gettis
- OL Michael Bowie
Pittsburgh Steelers
- RB Gus Johnson
- RB Brandon Brown-Dukes
- RB Dreamius Smith
- CB Mike Hilton
- OL Keavon Milton
- OL Matt Feiler
- S Jacob Hagen
- WR Marcus Tucker
- WR Dez Stewart
- While Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is considering retirement, it will be a surprise if the 13th-year man doesn’t return in 2017, sources told Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com (Twitter link). In the seemingly likely event Roethlisberger does come back for his age-35 season, the Steelers should still give serious thought to using a high-round pick on a potential successor, opines Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
- It appeared the NFL had lifted running back Karlos Williams‘ 10-game suspension when the Steelers brought him back on a reserve/futures deal Monday, but that’s not the case. Williams still has one game remaining on the substance abuse-related ban the league handed him in November, tweets Fowler. He’ll be eligible to take the field again in Week 2 of next season.
There is a chance that Pittsburgh’s 36-17 loss to New England in Sunday’s AFC title game will go down as the final contest of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger‘s career. In an interview with 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh, Roethlisberger was unwilling to commit to returning in 2017 for what would be his age-35 season.
“I’m going to take this offseason to evaluate, to consider all options,” he said (via CBS Pittsburgh). “To consider health, and family and things like that and just kind of take some time away to evaluate next season, if there’s going to be a next season.”
This isn’t the first time Roethlisberger has told Mike Tomlin he’s contemplated retirement after a season, Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tweets. Tomlin, though, said he’s taking this seriously but isn’t alarmed or surprised by the indecision, Bouchette relays (Twitter links).
If there isn’t a next season for Roethlisberger, it would heavily affect the Steelers and the rest of the NFL, of course. Pittsburgh has regularly been a league superpower since it drafted Roethlisberger 11th overall in 2004, having finished with no fewer than eight wins during any of his 13 seasons and gone to the playoffs nine times. Two of those postseason trips have culminated in Super Bowl victories, the latest of which came at the conclusion of the 2009 campaign.
Roethlisberger has missed a combined six games because of injuries over the past two seasons, but his production has remained strong. He’s now fresh off his fifth Pro Bowl season, in which he completed 64.4 percent of his 509 passing attempts, amassed 3,819 yards on 7.5 YPA, and tossed 29 touchdowns against 13 interceptions.
In the two games Roethlisberger sat out in 2016, the Steelers turned to backup Landry Jones, who has been a mixed bag in 15 career appearances and also isn’t guaranteed to return to the club next season. Unlike Roethlisberger, Jones is set to become a free agent. Roethlisberger has three years remaining on the contract extension he signed in 2015. He’d owe the Steelers $18.6MM if he were to walk away, according to Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap (Twitter link), which makes an early exit seem unlikely.