Last season the Pittsburgh Steelers chose to only carry four receivers on their roster. In March, Mike Wallace, who served as the team’s number one receiver in 2012, left on the first day of free agency to sign with the Miami Dolphins. Then during the 2013 NFL Draft the Steelers drafted two wide receivers, which begs the questions: who gets a roster spot and who finds themselves on the outside looking in when the final cuts are made?
As the 2013 season gets closer (we are 3 months away from the first NFL Sunday) there are three players that seem locked in for roster spots at the receiver position. Antonio Brown is supposed to be the Steelers new number one receiver taking over for Wallace. Behind Brown will be Emmanuel Sanders, who is stepping into the starting line-up for the first time in his NFL career.
The Steelers also have third round pick Markus Wheaton out of Oregon State. The fact that they spent a third round pick on Wheaton means that he is guaranteed to make the roster in his rookie year and may even see some playing time as a rookie. That leaves three other players battling for one or two roster spots depending on how many receivers the team chooses to carry during the 2013 season.
Those other three players are, sixth round pick out of Oklahoma, Justin Brown and veterans Jerricho Cotchery and Plaxico Burress. All three of these players bring different things to the table and the Steelers will have to make a tough decision on who to keep and who to cut.
Brown is a rookie so he is inexperienced and unlikely to see much playing time as a rookie outside of special teams. At 6’3″ Brown does have very good height, however, and could be used as a situational receiver when his height could be used as an advantage. During his college career he was also a punt returner and played special teams so he could bring that dimension to the team.
Cotchery is a third-down machine and brings a veteran presence similar to the one Hines Ward had during his career with the Steelers. Cotchery is probably no more than a third receiver at this point in his career, but he still has some playing time left in him if he wins a roster spot.
Burress missed the 2009 and 2010 seasons and played sparingly last season with the Steelers. At 6’5″ he has the height to make plays against smaller corners and can be a threat in the red zone. Burress still has confidence in his ability to play in the NFL, but, like Cotchery, he doesn’t play special teams, which could hurt both players as they are likely to win only the fourth or fifth roster spot at receiver and typically those players play on special teams.
“I know I can still play, I know I can dominate in the red zone,” Burress told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, noting that he “drew double coverage in the red zone without hardly playing, I think teams will have to respect that.”
Unless the Steelers decide to carry six receivers they will have to release at least one of these players prior to the start of the season. Before that happens, however, there are a lot of questions to answer: Will Reggie Dunn win a roster spot? If he does will that affect the receiver depth chart? Will Justin Brown make the 53-man roster as a rookie? Will money be an issue during cuts? If so does that mean Cotchery and his $1 million cap hit is gone?
One question we don’t have to answer is whether or not Burress is going to be ready to go when training camp opens:
“I lost two years but the main thing about it, I persevered through it when a lot of people thought I was finished. Here I am three years removed from that and I’m still playing football,” Burress said. “I wake up every day, I come in here with a fresh attitude, man, ready to work, ready to play football.”
There is no doubting that Burress can still have an impact in the NFL; especially in the red zone. Even so, with the young players he is battling on the roster it will be tough for him to win a roster spot in 2013. However, if he does play well in camp and the pre-season it may be hard for the Steelers to cut him given his veteran presence and size.
