The Steelers went into cutdown day on Tuesday with some major questions on their roster.
Most notably among those was who was going to be the backup at outside linebacker and if they could perhaps upgrade their offensive line.
They appeared to accomplish both with a pair of trades in which they essentially gave up, well, nothing.
Omar Khan flipped a 2023 sixth-round draft pick to Denver for outside linebacker Malik Reed and a 2023 seventh-round pick. Then, he sent a 2025 conditional seventh-round pick to the Vikings to acquire offensive lineman Jesse Davis.
The grand cost of those two moves will cost the team just over $1 million in salary cap space -- once offsetting moves were made -- and leave the team with just over $8 million in available cap space heading into the season.
Reed has started 26 games the past two seasons for the Broncos, recording 13 sacks. He's an immediate upgrade over any player the Steelers had battling for a backup spot behind T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith.
He also can play on special teams, which is a must for a player who's not in the starting lineup. This is a younger, perhaps even more productive version of Melvin Ingram, who forced his way out of Pittsburgh midway through last season after not being happy with his playing time.
Don't believe me? Ingram had 25 tackles and two sacks in just under 600 defensive snaps last season for the Steelers and Chiefs.
Reed had 43 tackles and five sacks in 739 snaps for the Broncos last season.
Davis, meanwhile, has started 72 games over the past five seasons, all with the Dolphins. He's played both guard spots and right tackle. Oh, and the Dolphins' head coach the previous three seasons, Brian Flores, is now the Steelers' senior defensive assistant/linebackers coach.
If anyone knows a lot about Davis, it's Flores.
He's not a promising young player like Reed, but he's an upgrade over the players the Steelers were looking at as potential backups on their offensive line. In fact, Joe Haeg and Trent Scott both were released to help make room for Davis, though Haeg could certainly be back.
Davis can be the team's swing tackle and also play both guard spots.
Both players improve this team's depth. And for that, the Steelers essentially gave up one conditional draft pick, that coming in 2025.
• There are definitely some additional moves coming for the Steelers. One will be to place Damontae Kazee on injured reserve. The Steelers also are carrying seven wide receivers and defensive linemen.
Now, they have carried seven defensive linemen in the past, so the team might not look to make a move there. But seven wide receivers? That's excessive.
Perhaps rookie Calvin Austin, who has been out the past three weeks with a foot injury, could be headed to injured reserve, as well. Austin seems to be close to a return, but missed all three preseason games. That's a lot of catching up for the fourth-round draft pick to do.
"We saw a lot through camp, and we were very, very excited about him," offensive coordinator Matt Canada said Tuesday. "We’re still excited about him and disappointed that he got hurt. As he comes back and is ready to play, we’ll get ourselves ready to go with him and see where he’s at. Certainly, missing those preseason games is going to slow his growth because those are chances to see him in the stadium with live reps against other competition. So, it’s disappointing for him that we didn’t get to see that, but as soon as he’s able to go we’ll get him going and see where we are."
• The fact the Steelers placed Kazee on the 53-man roster is good news. That means he'll be back at some point this season after suffering a forearm fracture in the team's final preseason game.
The Steelers had planned on using three safety packages with Kazee, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Terrell Edmunds on the field together. But they won't necessarily throw those plans out the window until Kazee returns, presumably sometime in early October.
"We're going to do what we have to do," defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said. "We know it's a next-man-up principle here. And so, we'll find somebody else to fill that job. However, we do it. It might be with another safety it might be with another body; it might be a corner. I don't know how we'll do it, but we'll fill that role, and we'll fill that stuff we need to get done with someone else."
Maybe the Steelers won't use that package as much as they would have with Kazee available, but it wouldn't be surprising to see Cam Sutton at free safety on occasion with Fitzpatrick playing in the slot.
The Steelers want Fitzpatrick closer to the line of scrimmage at times so that he can create more havoc.
"It wasn't a desire to get Minkah to ball hunt," Austin said. "It was a desire to get a really good football player on the field. I think Kazee is a good football player. And that's really what it was to try to get your best players and put them in position to make some good plays. Obviously, the added bonus of that was it freed Minkah up a little bit more. But, you know, like I said, well we'll figure out what we have to do and who we need to get to do some of that role."
But it doesn't hurt to also free Fitzpatrick up to do more.
"He looks good when he's freed up," Austin admitted.
• If Dan Moore struggles at left tackle as he did in the preseason, don't be surprised if the Steelers explore moving Chuks Okorafor from right to left tackle and inserting Davis at right tackle.
"I don’t view Chuks as just a right tackle," Canada said. "I think Chuks is really, really talented. But I think right now, we feel like where we are gives us the best chance to win today. That’s where we’re at. I would never pigeonhole us to say we couldn’t do something down the road, but right now that’s where we are."
• Maybe I'm the outlier on this, but I'm not as concerned about the line as, well, pretty much everyone else.
Here's why.
Let's say the Steelers average 35 pass attempts per game. Of those, Canada can use his quarterback's mobility on 5 to 10 of those snaps. The Steelers also can run another 10 snaps where they utilize three- and five-step drops. They'll also use some max protection with play-action to slow things down.
Remember, they weren't really able to utilize any of those things in 2021, when the only way to beat an opposing pass rush was to have Ben Roethlisberger get the ball out in 2.5 seconds or less. Or run a bubble screen.
If the Steelers can limit their third-and-long situations -- and they can do that using the aforementioned quarterback mobility -- their line should be more than adequate.
• The idea for an offensive line if you don't have five stars, is to at least have five players who are similar in talent. Don't have weak spots on the line. That's the spot where opposing defenses will attack.
Certainly if it's just one weakness, the offense can do things to help that player. Multiple weak spots are a bigger issue, obviously.
The Steelers really weren't helping any of their offensive linemen much in the preseason in order to suss out where that weakness might be.
Moore at left tackle was the clear winner. You can bet that Moore will get help in Week 1 in his matchup against the Bengals' Trey Hendrickson.
"That’s life, that’s not anything earth-shattering or groundbreaking," Tomlin said. "We’d better do schematics to aid our personnel, whether it’s the offensive line or any component of play. That’s just appropriate professional coaching."
But there do come times when the player also has to handle his business one-on-one.
• Tomlin is more than content to play things coy with his team's quarterback announcement. At this point, it serves no purpose to announce Mitch Trubisky is the starter, even though it's apparent that is the case.
Nationally, people are still talking about this as if it's a competition between Trubisky and Kenny Pickett.
Certainly, the Bengals are unlikely to believe that. But you never know. If they spend five minutes preparing to face Pickett, it's five minutes they could have been doing something else.
Tomlin doesn't have to announce who his starter will be. So, you make the Bengals at least spend time breaking down tape of both quarterbacks. Even if the Bengals don't use practice time preparing for Pickett, that doesn't mean the Cincinnati coaching staff won't have to at least look at what the rookie did in the preseason and think about what it would do if he's the starter.
• As for who the starter will be, Tomlin was blunt Tuesday.
"Who’s to say it’s not settled?" he asked. "I’m just not making any announcements because it’s fruitless for us. We’ve just got work ahead of us and so that’s kind of not on our agenda, to make any announcements to feed the beast. We don’t care about the beast."
In other words, he doesn't have to announce who his starter is, and he won't announce who it is until he has to do so.
The Steelers will have to release a depth chart next Tuesday. That's when Trubisky will be listed atop the depth chart.