Will a rookie undrafted free agent make the Pittsburgh Steelers final 53-man roster this year? With two preseason games remaining before the final roster cuts need to be made it certainly doesn’t appear as though one will.
At the conclusion of the 2016 NFL Draft the Steelers signed 10 rookie players to their offseason 90-man roster and as of Thursday, only defensive linemen Johnny Maxey, Giorgio Newberry, and Devaunte Sigler along with punter Will Monday remain from that group. However, one other player from that original group of 10 undrafted players, wide receiver Canaan Severin, is currently on the team’s Reserve/Injured list due a shoulder injury that he suffered a few weeks ago during training camp.
The other original five undrafted players, linebacker Tyriq McCord, running back Christian Powell, center Quinton Schooley and tight ends Jay Rome and David Reeves have been parted ways with. Some were waived healthy while a few others were waived with injury settlements.
While Maxey, Newberry, Sigler and Monday are all expected to see action Friday night in the Steelers Friday night preseason game against the New Orleans Saints, none of the four are expected to make the final 53-man roster this year. In fact, a few of those four players are likely to waived early next week when the Steelers are required to trim their roster down to 75 players.
While the Steelers current 90-man roster also still includes 8 other undrafted rookies, none of them appear to have a shot at surviving the final two rounds of cuts. That group of players consist of guard Shahbaz Ahmed, running back, Brandon Brown-Dukes, wide receiver Marcus Tucker, tackle Wade Hansen, defensive tackle Khaynin Mosley-Smith, cornerback Julian Whigham and tight ends Paul Lang and Michael Cooper.
Last year, wide receiver Tyler Murphy and defensive end Caushaud Lyons were two rookie undrafted players who the team had on their Week 1 53-man roster. In 2014, however, no undrafted rookies were on the team’s Week 1 53-man roster and it looks like that might ultimately be the case this year unless one is plucked off of waivers after the final few rounds of league roster cuts are made just as Lyons was last year.
