At long last, the Pittsburgh Steelers finally added a second punter to their training camp roster. The team was awarded undrafted rookie Aidan Laros after the Buccaneers waived him earlier this week.
In short, the Steelers are essentially handing the punting job to veteran Cameron Johnston.
While Laros will certainly compete for a roster spot, he doesn’t feel like real competition. No one had him ranked highly during this draft process. In a world where top undrafted free agents get portions of their salary guaranteed, Laros got a meager signing bonus of just $5,000.
While he adds another leg to the Steelers punting room, it doesn’t feel like a legitimate battle. Considering Johnston’s recent history in the league, that seems like a massive mistake.
The Pittsburgh Steelers needed to add a better punter than Aidan Laros
Laros has a decent leg, but his consistency hurt him in college. He may be able to fix some of those mistakes, but he feels like a long shot to stick around as a starter.
There were a slew of better rookie products this year that the team should have targeted. Instead, the Steelers sat on their hands and let a few different names try out and fail to stick to the roster.
If this were the Johnston of a few seasons ago, that wouldn’t have been the end of the world. Unfortunately, the aging punter has fallen on hard times.
He signed a large contract with the Steelers just a few years ago before tearing his knee up in a game. Last year, he competed in camp with Corliss Waitman, a battle that he clearly lost.
Injuries and mediocre play continued to keep Johnston off the field, but the Steelers quickly turned around and brought him back this year to compete for their punter job. It just feels like an uninspired option.
It certainly feels like it is his job to lose. Laros feels less like legitimate competition and more like the last option the Steelers had left to add a second punter to their summer roster. Of the two, I’d be shocked if the veteran didn’t win the job.
Of course, the Steelers could be hoping to sign or trade for someone at roster cutdowns, but that feels desperate when they had all offseason to try and add someone notable to the room.
The Steelers mostly ignored their punter room this offseason. Maybe Johnston can reclaim some of his former magic, but it is now clear that the team is all in on the veteran for 2026.
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