Home 2015 Off-Season Walterfootball.com Projects Some Interesting Final Cuts for the Steelers

Walterfootball.com Projects Some Interesting Final Cuts for the Steelers

by Steeldad

I awoke this morning to a link from fellow SCB writer Chris projecting end-of-Training Camp cuts for all 32 teams from walterfootball.com. As I scrolled through the page, I couldn’t help but notice the big names they had potentially getting released from across the league.

I find walterfootball.com to be a solid source of information and they do a great job with many facets of the NFL but as always, I take all sites with a grain of salt because there are always things to disagree with. Regardless, I found this intriguing especially in regards to the Steelers.

Charlie Campbell, who you can follow @draftcampbell on Twitter, is projecting that Bruce Gradkowski, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Mike Mitchell, Will Allen and Sean Spence will all be looking for work elsewhere prior to the start of the regular season.

The two I can absolutely agree with are Will Allen and DHB. The one I can buy is Sean Spence because of the depth at the inside backer position, but I have an extremely hard time buying Mitchell and Gradkowski being cut.

Let me start there first. Campbell cites the presence of Tajh Boyd as a reason that Gradkowski could be released and he also says that at 32 years old, Gradkowski offers “zero upside.” While that is certainly true as a starter, I couldn’t disagree more about his status as a back-up.

Give me Bruce Gradkowski a million times over Boyd if either were forced into action. Experience and knowledge are Gradkowski’s friends and that’s who I’m riding with at that spot.

As for Mike Mitchell, there were certainly man of us who were less than pleased with his performance last season after signing a free agent deal. We later learned he was dealing with injuries throughout the entire season but that excuse wont fly in 2015.

In order for both Mitchell and Allen (who I do believe will be released) to be cut, then that means Rob Golden, Alden Darby and rookie Gerod Holliman will have stepped up among others. Not sure we’ve seen enough for this to happen yet.

Spence is an emotional cut after all he’s been through but at the end of the day football is a business and the possibility does exist for his departure.

Lastly is DHB who is an excellent special teams player and a good veteran presence. Still, is that important enough to keep him around as a fifth receiver instead of say… C.J. Goodwin? Only time and one more camp will tell.

Campbell obviously knows his stuff and did some homework for this piece. Check out his cuts for other divisional teams. You might like what you see.

 

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2 comments

Ben Anderson July 9, 2015 - 9:34 pm

Haven’t read the article, but based upon your description this just sounds like more lull in the offseason, muck raking click bait.
Bruce Gradkowski: while Grad is not my favorite NFL backup, he is in no danger of being cut. I have no idea how anyone would project Tajh Boyd as being a viable NFL #2 when he was out of the league last year. Boyd will exceed my expectations if he manages to wash out Laundry Jones and capture the #3 spot.
Darrius Heyward-Bey: I expect DHB to make the team for STs, if nothing else. Hopefully CJ Goodwin proves me wrong. I’d rather the #5 WR were a young guy with upside than an old guy on the backside of his career.
Mike Mitchell: Really? And replace him with who? Mitchell wasn’t great last year. I wanted him to be cut this year, while cap hit was manageable. but his replacement is not on this roster. Rob Golden and Holliman aren’t ready to be starters. The Steelers decided they were going to roll with Mitchell this year and told us that when they restructured his contract in February. Cutting him now results in $7.055M in dead money, $5.29M of which would count in 2016. There is almost zero chance this cut takes place, barring Mitchell robbing a liquor store for a thrill and getting arrested for it.
Will Allen: given that the team is starting Shamarko Thomas at safety and that Thomas is unproven, coupled with the fact that Allen is seemingly Mike Tomlin’s favorite security blanket, I just don’t see it. Rob Golden will be cut before Allen.
Sean Spence: I can buy this as a possibility because of depth at the position, but if it happens I’m going to be pissed. I argued that Spence should have been traded this offseason because of that depth and the obvious fact that Spence wants to be a starter someplace. When his contract is up, unless something has changed, that opportunity will not be present in Pittsburgh and he will move on anyway. Even getting a 5th or 6th rounder for him this year would be better than developing him and getting nothing when he leaves. Had they traded Spence they could have gotten something for a superfluous player at a position of great depth. Timmons, Shazier, V Williams, Spence, Garvin, Zumwalt. Outside you have Moats, Jarvis, Harrison & his 25 snaps, Dupree, Lemon, Howard Jones, Anthony Chickillo and Shayon Green. That’s 14 guys vying for 8 or 9 spots. Put another way, at 1st blush it looks like Garvin, Zumwalt, Lemon, Howard Jones, Chickillo and Green are battling each other for the 9th LB spot. 6 guys, 1 roster spot.

Wayne Simpson July 12, 2015 - 4:06 pm

Agree, don’t see Steelers cutting Gradkowski or Mitchell.

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