Steelers’ latest round of roster cuts proves that Pittsburgh’s 2022 NFL Draft class is one they will want to forget about
Not a great look.
Former Pittsburgh Steelers GM Kevin Colbert aimed to leave the Steelers with a franchise quarterback, star WR, and premier EDGE rusher in his final draft class.
Those players were Kenny Pickett, George Pickens, and DeMarvin Leal, the first three picks of the Steelers’ 2022 NFL Draft class.
And now they’re all gone.
Steelers release DL/EDGE DeMarvin Leal
Leal could just never find his footing in Pittsburgh. He was a tweener who didn’t have the body type to play inside, at 3T or 5T, but he didn’t have the frame, bend, and burst to play on the EDGE. That, coupled with injuries, and you could see the writing on the wall.
But that’s all in the micro. In the macro, the release of Leal envokes a broader discussion on the 2022 draft class and the current state of the Steelers. Kenny Pickett was just traded, again. He’s now on his fourth team, and he was drafted only three years ago.
We can talk about how he was set up to fail, and that the Steelers did him wrong in the end, but Pickett, as a first-round prospect, was always too rich. Then, the team decided to gamble on George Pickens.
Impossible to knock them and him, given his production over his three-year tenure, the problem is that Pickens was always a ticking time bomb. The whole reason he fell to the second round was because of his character concerns, and those became too heavy even for the Steelers.
He’s the Dallas Cowboys’ problem now.
And then Leal. As we stated, that was more of a fit issue than anything else. But it’s not like the rest of the class made up for it. In fact, the only players still on the roster from that class are Calvin Austin III and, as of publish time, Connor Heyward.
That many misses will set your team back. Especially when the main one is a quarterback. Omar Khan and Andy Weidl have done their best to remedy that class, and the 2025 Steelers roster does look good top to bottom.
But they will be in the QB and WR sweepstakes again in 2026, and that has a lot to do with what went wrong in 2022.
Pittsburgh Steelers News
2025 Pittsburgh Steelers Final Cuts Tracker: Keeping tabs on all the surprises and roster moves ahead of deadline day
Keep track of all the roster moves here.
