Steelers 2-a-days: Mark Robinson, Chapelle Russell the last men standing from 2022 ILB room
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Editor’s note: From the end of minicamp through the day the team reports to training camp at Saint Vincent College, the Trib will be running through the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 90-man roster, assessing each player’s outlook for the 2023 season. The breakdown will go through the roster in mostly-alphabetical order, (at least) two per day, between June 16 and July 26. Contract data courtesy spotrac.com.
ILB MARK ROBINSON
Experience: 2nd season
Contract status: $898,089 cap hit in 2023, signed through 2025
2023 outlook: Robinson spent most of his rookie season last year as the Steelers’ fourth inside linebacker. By the end, he’d been promoted to a more prominent role than that. And then, the top three at the position all left via free agency.
But Robinson enters this camp no higher on the depth chart. The Steelers replaced Devin Bush, Myles Jack and Robert Spillane with free-agent signings Cole Holcomb, Elandon Roberts and Tanner Muse (plus the late-spring addition of Nick Kwiatkoski). Assuming Holcomb and Roberts stay healthy, they will enter the season handling the bulk of the ILB duties. Robinson, though, is something of a wild card. The Steelers see potential in him — but their actions (signing four veterans at the position, including two to starter’s money) signal they don’t necessarily believe he’s ready quite yet.
That’s not unexpected in that Robinson was a seventh-round pick with only one college season as a linebacker — and one season at the FBS level. Robinson was a running back for Presbyterian College and Southeast Missouri State before transferring to Ole Miss and moving to linebacker for them in 2021. Of course, this suggests Robinson is an ascending player who will improve as he learns more nuances of playing linebacker. Late last season, the Steelers were open that they believed Robinson was an asset against the run. Perhaps in 2023 he gets deployed in similar situations. But if he’s ever going to show he can be a three-down linebacker, this season might be when he begins to prove it.
.@TimBenzPGH: #Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin on how long before ILB Mark Robinson may start https://t.co/lG1DA67tAk
— Tribune-Review Sports (@TribSports) June 16, 2023
ILB CHAPELLE RUSSELL
Experience: Played 27 regular-season games during the 2020 and 2021 NFL seasons
Contract status: $940,000 cap hit if he makes the team in 2023
2023 outlook: Russell joins Robinson as the only inside linebackers who were with the Steelers in 2022 who are back. Russell, though, spent the entire season on the practice squad after being signed to it Sept. 1 following a release by the Jacksonville Jaguars during their final cuts. The year prior, Russell had appeared in 16 games for the Jaguars, and as a rookie in 2020 was in uniform for 11 of the final 12 regular-season games played by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Russell, though, was waived prior to the Bucs’ playoff run that year that culminated with a Super Bowl victory.
Russell entered the NFL as a seventh-round pick that year after a college career at Temple that featured him twice suffering a torn ACL in his right knee. During the pre-draft process, scouts believed Russell’s speed and athleticism would play at the NFL level. He’s been limited to 92 defensive snaps over the three pro seasons since he was drafted, but in his most recent full-time action (2021) Russell played a higher share of the Jaguars’ special-teams snaps than anyone over the 16 games he was in uniform.
If coaches believe they can trust Russell on special teams, he can make this roster as a reserve inside linebacker. That the Steelers kept him around for the past 10 ½ months shows they like him.
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