Steelers Make Roster Moves on April Fool Day 2024
On Monday, the Steelers announced another round of contracts that became official as we inch toward the NFL Draft, later this month.
Cordarrelle Patterson
The Steelers officially signed Cordarrelle Patterson to a 2-year deal worth $6 million. The two sides came to an agreement on this deal on March 26th, the same day that the league announced the new kickoff rules starting during the 2024 season.
Patterson has had some significant NFL success throughout his career. He’s one of those swiss-army-knife guys that does a lot of moving around. Most people view Patterson as a kick return specialist, and it’s not hard to see why, as he has had tremendous success throughout his career in this role. In fact, he has 9 kick returns for touchdowns, which is the most in NFL history.
Despite the notion that all he does is return kicks, he has decent success as a running back, and even runs routes out wide as a receiver. He will be reunited with the Steelers’ OC, Arthur Smith, who was Patterson’s head coach in Atlanta for the last three seasons.
Quez Watkins
The Steelers signed Quez Watkins to a one-year contract on Monday, although I can’t find anything concrete about the actual terms of the contract; I’d have to imagine it’s pretty cheap.
After trading Diontae Johnson to the Panthers (much to my chagrin), the Steelers were desperate to add to their wide receiver room; hell they’re still desperate.
Watkins spent the last four years with the Philadelphia Eagles. His best year came in 2021, when he logged 43 catches for 647 yards, averaging 15 yards per catch. His other three years in Philly were…not exactly noteworthy. In fact, from what I’ve seen on the Eagles’ subreddit, and just talking to the Eagles fans that I know, he will not be missed over there. The most common complaint I gathered in speaking with them all pertained to effort; giving up on routes and refusing to fight through contact to make catches. Needless to say, more moves will be made at the WR position, whether that be via trade or the draft.
Nonetheless, the Steelers get a speedster that does most of his damage from the slot, and is a fairly good compliment to George Pickens. I’m feeling ‘meh’ about this one.
Kyle Allen
Another contract that was made official on Monday was a one-year contract for QB Kyle Allen. Allen was, most recently, the backup to another, much better, Allen in Buffalo named Josh Allen. Kyle Allen and Mitch Trubisky will essentially trade places.
There has been a lot of talk about the Steelers potentially taking a rookie QB late in the 2024 NFL draft. I don’t think that option is off the table, as the Steelers have a tendency to go into training camp with four QBs. Nonetheless, Kyle Allen is a decent veteran option that has some experience as a starter and doesn’t cost a ton of money. Also, he has shared QB rooms with the likes of Cam Newton and Josh Allen.
This signing won’t ‘wow’ you, but it’s hard to ask for much better for a QB3. He’ll get an opportunity to sit behind Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. If he sees the field at all in 2024, it’ll either be because we’re blowing someone out of the stadium, or shit has really hit the fan for us, and we’re screwed anyways.
The Kenny Pickett hate mob will love this one: Kyle Allen threw for over 3,000 yards back in 2019, his second year in the league; a feat that Kenny Pickett has yet to accomplish. I love KP, and he’s the better quarterback, but I thought that was funny.
Dean Lowry
Last, and pretty much least, the Steelers signed DL Dean Lowry to a two-year deal. Defensive line depth has been another topic that I have discussed in the past. Lowry had decent success with the Green Bay Packers before signing with the Minnesota Vikings last season. He was only able to log 14 tackles and 1 pass defended before he suffered a season-ending pectoral injury, and was subsequently released by the Vikings.
Similar to the Quez Watkins signing, Lowry will be a nice rotational piece, but I doubt he will be the last move that the Steelers make at DL. Nonetheless, he joins Cam Heyward, Keeanu Benton and the crew in Pittsburgh.
We’ve hit a pretty brutal offseason lull, but April is here, and now we can turn our attention to the NFL draft. This week, I’m going to do a deep dive into some draft prospects at our positions of need, including OT, C, WR, DL, and CB.
After that, we will be able to turn our attention to OTAs and training camp. I’m hoping to take my first trip to Latrobe, this summer, to watch the boys get to work. It’s been boring these last two weeks, but we have a lot to look forward to!
Here. We. Go.
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