Steelers Now
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers are generally fairly healthy as they leave behind their three weeks of spring practices and entire the summer with training camp at St. Vincent College five weeks out on the horizon, but if there’s one position where their depth has been tested through the early part of the offseason, it’s been at tight end.
The Steelers entered the offseason with five players listed as tight ends on their roster: starter Pat Freiermuth, returning backups Darnell Washington and Connor Heyward, free agent addition Donald Parham and undrafted rookie JJ Galbreath.
Parham was lost for the season to a torn Achilles during OTAs. Galbreath spent most of minicamp on the sidelines with an undisclosed injury, confirmed to Steelers Now by several players.
Another undrafted rookie, DJ Thomas-Jones, is listed on the roster as a fullback, but has been practicing with the tight ends group, not the running backs, since he arrived. He said he mostly played tight end at minicamp, thanks to the lack of numbers in front of him.
“I’m really in my playbook, making sure I know everything,” Thomas-Jones said. “I don’t want to know just one position, I want to know everything.”
Even with Thomas-Jones in the fold, that’s only four tight ends for a team that played four tights end on the field at the same time last year. For comparison, nobody ever plays more than six offensive linemen at a time and the Steelers have 15 on the roster.
So it makes a lot of sense for the Steelers to be looking at some kind of addition at the tight end position, whether that’s a first-round talent like Kyle Pitts, Pro Bowler like Jonnu Smith or any kind of smaller addition to the roster.
“The more the merrier,” tight ends coach Alfredo Roberts said on Wednesday. “You’d always like to add great players. I’m always blessed with great guys that love to play the game. …
“Donald Parham, who I was familiar with from the Chargers, would have added another piece to us, for sure. It’ll be interesting how we add. If we go into a game and we play with what we have, I’m good with that. If we add one more, we’ll sharpen that blade and get them in the mix.”
Head coach Mike Tomlin said the team has no injuries that will interrupt the team’s plans for training camp, but it’s hard to know if he’d consider not having Galbreath an interruption. Either way, even if the rookie is able to return to action by the end of next month, it should not be a surprise if there’s a new face joining him in the Steelers’ tight ends room.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Injuries Have Steelers Eyeing Additions at Tight End
