In the blink of an eye, minicamp and Organized Team Activities have come and gone for the Pittsburgh Steelers.<\/p>\n
Next stop: Saint Vincent College in Latrobe<\/a> for another edition of training camp.<\/p>\n There, the Steelers will have a number of new faces experiencing the old-school training camp environment for the first time. It will be an eye-opening experience for many, and with the trip to Latrobe, there will be plenty of battles not only in each unit but also for roster spots up for grabs.<\/p>\n In the first year of new head coach Mike McCarthy, it\u2019s a wide-open competition for a handful of spots.<\/p>\n Below are my four key position battles I\u2019m gearing up to watch come the start of training camp next month.<\/p>\n 1. STARTING RT<\/p>\n A lot will depend on what happens with Broderick Jones\u2019s health entering training camp. While he participated some in OTAs and minicamp, he didn\u2019t do team drills, and could be on a similar trajectory early in training camp. Troy Fautanu has kicked over to left tackle, and the Steelers seem to be locking that in. That leaves the likes of Dylan Cook and rookie first-round pick Max Iheanachor to battle it out at right tackle.<\/p>\n Cook is the frontrunner at the moment<\/a> due to his NFL experience, albeit at left tackle. He looked solid last season after stepping in for the injured Jones, and was working with the top unit in OTAs and minicamp. But the Steelers invested in Iheanachor in the first round for a reason.<\/p>\n He\u2019s big, long and plays with a mean streak. He\u2019s a high-end athlete, too. Eventually, he\u2019s going to be the starting right tackle. With a strong camp, he could make that a reality right out of the gate. Cook won\u2019t go quietly, though. It\u2019s a real battle, just like Fautanu and Jones found themselves in ahead of the 2024 season. Hopefully, an injury doesn\u2019t decide it as that one did.<\/p>\n 2. WR3<\/p>\n The Steelers invested heavily in the wide receiver position this offseason with the trade for Michael Pittman Jr., and the move up in the second round of the 2026 NFL Draft to land Alabama\u2019s Germie Bernard. But don\u2019t discount third-year pro Roman Wilson in the WR3 discussion.<\/p>\n Throughout the offseason, despite Bernard generating a ton of praise, it has been Wilson getting the run as WR3.<\/a> He has the experience to give him a leg up, and while the chemistry with quarterback Aaron Rodgers wasn\u2019t always there, he\u2019s still made some big plays with the veteran. In a more WR-friendly scheme like McCarthy\u2019s, Wilson should have plenty of opportunities to see the field and make an impact.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the ideal result is Bernard as WR3 and Wilson as WR4, which would lengthen the receiver room significantly. But if Wilson can win the WR3 role outright, it\u2019s hard not to see a big year ahead for the former third-round pick. He needs a big season, and he has the opportunity in front of him.<\/p>\n 3. TOP BACKUP CB<\/p>\n Much like receiver, the Steelers threw a lot of assets at cornerback this offseason. Pittsburgh signed veteran Jamel Dean in free agency, re-signed Asante Samuel Jr. to shore up depth, and then drafted Georgia\u2019s Daylen Everette in the third round. On paper, Pittsburgh\u2019s cornerback room looks pretty darn good, especially with Joey Porter Jr. as CB1 and Brandin Echols as good, experienced depth.<\/p>\n The question coming out of OTAs and minicamp, though, is: who is the top backup to Porter and Dean?<\/p>\n Logic says it will be Samuel, considering he\u2019s the veteran and was a priority re-signing before the start of free agency. But Everette\u2019s emergence in the offseason has been notable. That he\u2019s learning slot corner, too,<\/a> is a huge development. He\u2019s had the chance to get some run against the likes of DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr., and has held his own. He\u2019s a big, long corner, and the Steelers were high on him coming out of Georgia. He projects as a developmental piece in 2026, whereas Samuel is ready now. But can a strong training camp push Everette ahead of Samuel as the first CB off the bench?<\/p>\n It certainly feels possible right now, and it will be a fascinating battle to watch throughout training camp and the preseason.<\/p>\n 4. KICK RETURNER<\/p>\n The Steelers drafted Iowa\u2019s Kaden Wetjen in the fourth round for a reason. He was the best return man in the country the last two years in college, and is a true weapon with the football in his hands. That said, he\u2019s much better as a punter returner than a kick returner, and with the different kickoff rules in the NFL compared to college, it could be a difficult transition for Wetjen<\/a> in that area of special teams.<\/p>\n Could that leave the door open for someone else to emerge as a kick returner and grab a roster spot? What about fellow rookie and seventh-round pick Eli Heidenreich? He returned some kicks at Navy, but doesn\u2019t have an extensive history. Still, he\u2019s a weapon with the ball in his hands, and the Steelers could try to get him onto the field any way that they can. Could second-year RB Kaleb Johnson get a second chance in the return game? After all, it\u2019s a clean slate with the new coaching staff.<\/p>\n Or could new coordinator Danny Crossman lean on Jaylen Warren once again to return kicks? Ideally, one of Wetjen or Heidenreich grabs the kick return job. Both are skilled and create in space. We\u2019ll see how they look in the preseason, but it\u2019s an underrated position battle worth watching, considering the importance of special teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the blink of an eye, minicamp and Organized Team Activities have come and gone for the Pittsburgh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[19975,67346,13239,89391,78173,63989,3272,54823,54502,76713,73,75,74,1833,15384],"class_list":["post-218834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-asante-samuel-jr","tag-daylen-everette","tag-deshon-elliott","tag-dylan-cook","tag-eli-heidenreich","tag-germie-bernard","tag-jaylen-warren","tag-kaden-wetjen","tag-kaleb-johnson","tag-max-iheanachor","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-roman-wilson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}