If there’s a position group on the Steelers roster that already feels penciled in, it’s edge rusher. Pittsburgh has long leaned toward keeping just four players there on the initial 53-man roster, and that trend looks set to continue.
Even with a base 3-4 defense under new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, the Steelers are expected to spend plenty of time in subpackages. That keeps the job description at edge pretty clear: hold the line against the run, then go hunt the quarterback when the ball is in the air.
With training camp still ahead, the group already looks mostly settled.
T.J. Watt sits at the top of the list at 100%.
There’s no real suspense there. Some fans have questioned the size of his extension from last year and pointed to a drop in performance over the last two seasons, but that doesn’t change the reality that the four-time First-Team All-Pro and 2021 Defensive Player of the Year is going nowhere.
If Omar Khan ever even entertained a trade, it would not come until the November trade deadline, and only if the Steelers stumbled badly through the first half of the 2026 season.
Nick Herbig is right there with him at 100%. After landing a four-year, $100 million extension this spring, he may be the safest player on the roster. He was also recently ranked first among the franchise’s most valuable future assets, and the expectation is that his role grows this season.
Alex Highsmith comes in at 99%, which is as close to certain as it gets without being absolute. He still doesn’t get enough credit, and there’s even a chance he ends up playing more snaps than Watt and Herbig.
Based on talent and roster structure, he’s a lock - with only a sliver of room left in case the Steelers decide they love their options enough to move him before cutdowns. Even then, the odds of him being on the Week 1 roster are greater than 99 percent.
Jack Sawyer rounds out the likely group at 98%. It’s a strong number for a former fourth-round pick, but Pittsburgh appears comfortable with him finishing the edge room, especially with the depth behind him looking thin.
As a rookie, Sawyer flashed some playmaking juice with a sack, three tackles for loss, four pass defenses and two interceptions. He’s not being labeled a guaranteed lock, but he’s very close.
The long shots are where the rest of the story lives. Jamin Davis, a former first-round pick at off-ball linebacker, is trying to carve out a new path at outside linebacker after mostly playing inside linebacker for Washington since 2021 and spending brief time with Minnesota and Las Vegas over the last two seasons. His athletic profile once made him a highly touted prospect, but at this point he’s a journeyman attempting a position switch, and the odds of him making the 53 are just 3%.
Julius Welschof is at 0% for the active roster. The Germany native is an International Pathway Player, which could help Pittsburgh keep a 17th player on its 16-man practice squad, but that’s where the benefit stops.
The 29-year-old has been around for a few years without appearing in a regular-season game or logging an NFL snap. On the 53-man roster, he has essentially no shot.
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Now a free agent, Dobbs is at an uncertain point in that journey, with his most memorable stretch still coming in Minnesota in 2023 when he quickly helped stabilize the Vikings and delivered a brief but impressive run. His most recent work came with the Patriots, where he backed up Drake Maye and saw limited action, and the question hanging over him is whether there is another NFL opportunity ahead or whether he is moving toward the next phase of his football life. [Read more 🡒]
Steelers Finally Fixed One Acrisure Problem As Bigger Questions Loom
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The grass is only part of the refresh. Seat replacements are already underway as part of a multi-million dollar modernization push, with black seats joining the familiar gold to change the look inside the stadium. It is the sort of long-term maintenance the building has needed, even if the bigger conversation around Acrisure still goes well beyond the surface itself. [Read more 🡒]