Steelers roster rankings
Steelers roster rankings
The Pittsburgh Steelers had a busy offseason. With 10 draft picks and a slew of veterans brought in via free agency and trade, there are plenty of new faces on this year’s roster.
While a lot can change once the season kicks off, Pittsburgh’s roster doesn’t appear to have any major holes. Michael Pittman Jr. and Germie Bernard were brought in to shore up a wide receiver room that was lacking. Jamel Dean, Jaquan Brisker, and Rayshawn Jenkins all provide options in a secondary that was challenged a year ago.
But where does the Steelers’ roster rank in the larger NFL landscape? According to CBS Sports, it’s in the bottom half of the league. Jordan Dajani and Tyler Sullivan ranked all 32 NFL rosters and had Pittsburgh at No. 19, with their main questions being at two positions.
At safety, the question is less about the players’ ability but more about their ability to stay on the field.
“There are some durability concerns with this group. Pittsburgh inked Jaquan Brisker to a one-year deal in free agency, and while he played in all 17 games for Chicago last season and broke up eight passes, he has a history of concussions,” Dajani and Sullivan wrote. “Meanwhile, DeShon Elliott was limited to five games last year due to injury. To compound the concern surrounding their injury history is the lack of depth behind them.”
Brisker has missed the entire preseason with an injury and his status is unclear as the regular season nears. Elliott is healthy after missing the second half of last season due to injury and will return to his starting role, but who will start beside him if Brisker remains out is unclear.
Jenkins has played well in preseason action as a late addition to the roster but is not guaranteed to make the team. Robert Spears-Jennings has impressed as well, but likely can’t be trusted as a starter as a seventh-round rookie.
Jalen Ramsey, who has battled injury himself since training camp, is another option at safety, but Pittsburgh would prefer to use him as a chess piece that moves around the defense.
The injury concerns are real at safety, but it isn’t the only reason Dajani and Sullivan docked Pittsburgh’s roster in their rankings. They also pointed to the quarterback position.
“Aaron Rodgers already announced this season as his last, and it stands to wonder what Pittsburgh will get out of the 42-year-old,” Dajani and Sullivan write. “While his 24-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio was inside the top 10 in 2025, Rodgers’ numbers beyond that were middling. He was 16th among 33 qualified QBs in completion percentage, 15th in passing yards and 27th in yards per attempt. Does that improve, decline, or stay the same in 2026?”
Pittsburgh’s best hope is that added weapons on offense and a new, offensive-minded head coach who has a history with Rodgers is enough to see an improved Rodgers in 2026. Given the weight of the position, and what we saw from Rodgers last season, it’s fair to negatively impact Pittsburgh’s ranking based on not having one of the league’s best signal callers.
The Steelers seem to believe that they have better than a bottom-half-of-the-league roster. Based on the moves that they’ve made in the offseason to plug holes with veterans, it’s clear that Pittsburgh wants to compete and believes it can. Offseason roster rankings make for great debate, but all will be forgotten once the teams take the field in two weeks.