**Player: WR Ben Skowronek**
**Stock Value: Up**
**Reasoning:** _The Steelers didn’t just re-sign WR Ben Skowronek but did so on a two-year contract. After proving his worth on special teams, he appears to have found a new home in Pittsburgh. A big guy willing to do the dirty work, he shouldn’t have a hard time making the roster._
Ben Skowronek and his five catches became a Steelers fan favorite last season, though not just for that. Sure, he was useful on his few targets—five in total, with four first downs—but his main role was on special teams.
And signing back with the Steelers this offseason, that is what Skowronek will continue to do. In fact, after squeezing onto the roster on a Veteran Salary Benefit deal, he earned a pay raise. They re-signed him on a two-year contract worth nearly $4.5 million. Effectively, they guaranteed him $2.25 million, giving him a $1,080,000 signing bonus in addition to his 2025 base salary of $1,170,000. The latter is the minimum amount for a veteran of his accrued experience. The former brings his Year-One pay of the deal to $2,250,000.
Skowronek is also on the books for a base salary of $2,250,000 in 2026 if the Steelers want him. So essentially, this is two one-year, $2,250,000 deals stacked on top of each other with a club option. And that’s pretty much how most of the Steelers’ contracts work.
Last season, Ben Skowronek played 149 special teams snaps for the Steelers, plus 101 offensive snaps. He can play even more on special teams and on offense, though, and has done so in the past. The previous season, he logged over 300 special teams snaps, and in 2022, he logged nearly 700 offensive snaps.
Now, do the Steelers envision a larger role for Skowronek? Perhaps a bit more than last season, but I can’t see them going into the season thinking he is third third receiver or anything like that. They already have George Pickens, DK Metcalf, Calvin Austin III, and Roman Wilson. From that perspective, he is the fifth receiver at best, and they are likely to draft another. But with his special teams value (including two recovered fumbles last year), he is a safe bet for the 53.
_With the new league year underway and the Steelers turning their roster over, it’s once again time to “take stock”. It took a while, but we finally saw some of that_ [_change the team talked about_](https://steelersdepot.com/2025/02/steelers-make-their-coaching-changes-they-still-manage-to-disappoint/) _after the season ended. Certainly, the move to trade for WR DK Metcalf qualifies as a change, not to mention the accompanying contract._
_There is still a long way to go before we know what this Steelers team is going to look like. Once the dust settles on free agency, we turn our attention_ [_to the draft_](https://www.nfl.com/draft/)_, and so on. What other moves might the team make, perhaps unexpected acquisitions or departures? If they traded for one player, they could certainly trade for another or trade one away. This is a Steelers team starving for postseason success, but how desperate are they for a playoff win in 2025?_