On the most recent episode of the Steelers Stat Geek podcast, I dove into the numbers of the production that was lost by players who are no longer with the Steelers after the 2023 season compared to how they have replaced players in free agency and trades. While there are several positions where the Steelers have increased production based on what they have added compared to what they have lost for this season, there are three positions where there are glaring needs ahead of the 2024 NFL draft.

For this exercise, I looked strictly it’s statistics from 2023 of players who are not currently under contract with the Steelers this year and compared them to the 2023 statistics of the players added. While there can be extenuating circumstances on both sides of the equation based on injury or playing situation, this is simply looking at the data.

Without further ado, here are the three positions where there are the biggest holes in the roster compared to last season for the Pittsburgh Steelers:

Wide Receiver

Players lost: Diontae Johnson, Allen Robinson, Miles Boykin

Players gained: Van Jefferson, Quez Watkins

Stats: -436 snaps, -50 receptions, -654 receiving yards, -4 touchdowns

First, I didn’t bother, including Miles Boykin‘s offensive stats for the Steelers. With his three receptions for 17 yards on the season, including his number of offensive snaps (121) seemed like piling on. Because of his unique role, I was afraid it would skew the data more than necessary to make the point. For this reason, the totals were reflective of losses were just those of Diontae Johnson and Allen Robinson.

While the Steelers have added two wide receivers through free agency, it’s easy to see that the production they gained based on last year‘s numbers is nowhere close to that which they lost. Just the loss of Allen Robinson (771 snaps, 34 receptions,, 280 yards, 0 touchdowns) was almost as much as what the Steelers have gained through Van Jefferson and Quez Watkins. With the overall production of Diontae Johnson needing to be replaced, it seems unlikely that it can be covered completely from other players currently on the roster picking up the slack. For this reason, it is why either a trade, another free agent signing, and/or a high value draft selection should still be on the table for the Steelers 2024 offseason.

Cornerback

Players lost: Patrick Peterson, Levi Wallace, Chandon Sullivan

Players gained: Donte Jackson

Stats: -1,341 snaps, -23 passes defensed, -5 interceptions, -43 tackles

For this section, it should be noted that, even though he played safety for a few games in 2023, Patrick Peterson‘s numbers are being counted, strictly as a cornerback as the actual statistics based on specific alignment were not readily available.

One of the biggest things Steelers fans may not realize is how much the Steelers lost at the cornerback position versus how little they gained. Donte Jackson played a lot of snaps for the Panthers in 2023, but he only had five passes defensed and no interceptions which were marks that were passed individually by each of the three cornerbacks the Steelers lost from last season. Based strictly on the numbers, the only thing Donte Jackson is ultimately helping to replace are snaps and tackles.

While all three of these players are considered to be losses, technically none of them have signed with another NFL team at this time. And even though many Steelers fans would bemoan Levi Wallace, or even Patrick Peterson, returning to the roster, having them do so at a lower spot on the depth chart brings improvement for 2024. Additionally, the Steelers do not have a specific nickel cornerback at this time, so a Sullivan return could also be beneficial.

Even though the Steelers have several cornerbacks with some potential, banking on the likes of Cory Trice, Darius, Rush, or Luq Barcoo could prove costly this upcoming season. Additionally, if things don’t fall in a particular way in the upcoming draft, the Steelers could be very active in continued free agency to help out at cornerback.

Center

Players lost: Mason Cole

Players gained: None

Stats: 1,069 offensive snaps played

This is obviously a glaring need, but there are not a lot of statistics to show it outside of snaps. The Steelers only have one player listed as a center on their roster at this time in Ryan McCollum, who spent the last two years with the Steelers on the practice squad. McCollum has 101 career snaps at center, all of which came in 2021 with the Detroit Lions.

While some Steelers fans think that the answer at center could be on the roster with one of their current lineman, the number of snaps played doesn’t give a lot of confidence. The last player from the Steelers 2023 53-man roster who is still with the team who took a snap at center in an NFL game was Nate Herbig who took 47 snaps at center in 2021 and two snaps in 2020 with the Philadelphia Eagles. James Daniels has 8 starts and 508 snaps played at center, but those came in 2019 with the Bears. Isaac Seumalo played one snap at center in each of the 2019 and 2018 seasons, and 32 snaps in 2017 with the Eagles, filling in every time in case of emergency.

Another option on the Steelers currently is 2023 seventh round draft pick Spencer Anderson, who is played about every position on the offensive line in college. But Anderson only saw two snaps on offense in 2023, none of which came at center.

As Steelers fans expect, there is still a lot of work to do in figuring out how the Steelers are going to handle the center position in 2024, with the large likelihood of center being a player selected high in the upcoming draft.

So there are the biggest holes in the Steelers roster at this time for 2024. It was appropriate to do the exercise now because adding significant players in the draft would not change these numbers, despite the Steelers then having both more and better options. By checking these numbers now, the Steelers biggest needs in the 2024 NFL draft have really become clear unless they make a move at these positions in the coming days.

To hear all these individual numbers, as well as some of the positions the Steelers improved their numbers from last season, check out the most recent Steelers Stat Geek podcast below: