Steelers make SNEAKY good signings... This is Great | Pittsburgh Steelers News

Just one day after the Pittsburgh Steelers cut down to their initial 53-man roster, they make a plethora of really sneaky good practice squad signings that give them great depth as they head into the 2026 regular season. How's everyone doing today? I hope you guys are having a great Monday. Before we hop into these practice squad signings, I want to remind everyone to subscribe to the channel. Subscribe to Steelers Digest so you can keep up to date on all things Pittsburgh Steelers. We're only 13 days away now from the regular season and it's awesome. Football is back, baby. We got college football this upcoming weekend and then we got, like I mentioned, the NFL regular season kicking off next weekend. You're going to want to make sure you subscribe so you can keep up to date on all things Pittsburgh Steelers as they try to make another playoff push and maybe another push for seven. Now let's hop into these practice squad signings. General Manager Omar Khan announced a ton of them being Lou Nichols, running back Lou Nichols and Travis Homer, wide receivers Brandon Smith and Max Hurlman, tight end Lake McCree, offensive linemen Doug Nestor and Steven Jones, defensive linemen Ezzie Otomo and Kyler Baugh, defensive backs Sebastian Castro and Danico Slaughter, linebacker Jacoby Widman, and then edge Julius Welshoff. A ton of great guys coming back to the practice squad. A ton of big preseason contributors, the first of which of three guys that I want to bring up here out of this entire list is Lou Nichols. The running back out of Central Michigan was a seventh round pick all the way back in 2023 with the Green Bay Packers. He's from Detroit, Michigan, has ended up on the Pittsburgh Steelers and had a really solid preseason. If you look at these stats, you might ask why I said, you know, a really solid preseason because only 10 Gary's for 51 yards on the ground and then only two catchers for 15 yards in the air. But if you watch this guy, he showed a ton of speed, great cuts, great vision. He looked like he belonged out there. Obviously, again, playing against second and third stringers, but he looked like he was playing against second and third stringers in some stretches in those games. He looked like someone I absolutely, you know, thought deserved a 53-man roster spot. I know a lot of you other Steelers fans probably agree with you there. I would have loved to see him as that fourth running back with Jalen Warren, Rico Dowdell, and Eli Heidenreich. Obviously, that didn't come to fruition, but it's great to see him be able to come back to this practice squad. I truly thought Lou Nichols was going to go somewhere else. I thought another team was going to, you know, want to snatch him up. But here he is back on the practice squad, giving the Steelers much needed security when it comes to the running back room. Because if Warren, Dowdell, or Heidenreich goes down, you can plug Nichols right into that running back three, and he can come and contribute immediately. And maybe that's not necessarily as a running back, but he can play special teams really well. He can do a lot of different things for you if you need that. So having that player on your practice squad, someone that, again, I think deserved a 53-man roster spot, is really great to see. Another guy that was, you know, itching to get on a 53-man roster, but sadly couldn't, is the one, is that of Lake McCree. Lake McCree went to college at USC. He is from Austin, Texas, first year here with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and had a really solid preseason. I say, throw up his stats here. On seven targets, had three catches for 51 yards and a touchdown. That of 38, you remember that was a long ball from Drew Allo, and he also caught a touchdown pass from Will Howard. So he was able to show, again, in a limited sample size, he was really able to show some nice stuff, especially with that touchdown. This is another guy that I wouldn't have been very surprised if he did, you know, make the roster. I'm still really happy with where the Steelers' tight end position is with, because, you know, you have Pat Frymouth, Darnell Washington, Robert Tonian, and then, you know, Riley Nowakowski is kind of that tight end fullback spot, kind of that Conor Hayward position, if you will. And then, who knows, maybe Eli Heidenreich might, you know, take a few snaps as a wide tight end. But Lake McCree is a young developmental tight end that I think has, you know, a lot of untapped potential and possibly has a nice future in the NFL. So I think the Steelers keeping him around on that practice squad is really nice to see, who knows, maybe he's able to come back next preseason with the team and truly make the 53-man roster and develop into possibly a startable tight end at the NFL level. But if he can't do that, again, with all of these, I can say this with literally every single player, especially these really good players that we're highlighting here, gives you awesome depth. If anything were to happen to that tight end position, Lake McCree, you slot him right in, and then, you know, you really don't think twice about it. The third guy that I did want to mention here is on the defensive side of the ball, and that's being Danico Slaughter. Quarterback out of Arkansas, grew up in Roswell, Georgia. He's another guy that really was one of these, you know, preseason darlings for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Throwing up his stats here, again, not a whole lot, had seven total tackles, three of them were solo, four assists, and that's pretty much all you saw out of Danico Slaughter. But this is someone that I also thought, you know, he had a really, really good camp heading into those preseason games. I remember him having a really strong first preseason game, and then it kind of dwindled from there, but I thought he was, I think he was absolutely someone that was probably just on that bubble. Maybe if we don't bring Rayshawn Jenkins on the 53, you very well could have seen Danico Slaughter there as well. But besides Lou Nichols, Lake McCree, and Danico Slaughter, I think this is a great list of guys of, you know, your practice squad that you feel really, really good for. Because a lot of these guys, besides the three that I just named, I'm really, you know, high on, and I think you could possibly see a lot of out of. I'm talking about Sebastian Castro. This is a guy that I've been so high on coming out of Iowa. Obviously it hasn't, you know, he hasn't gotten it all together yet. Still a young guy. I absolutely can see him being a nickelback here for the Steelers in the future, if you can make the team next year. But yeah, just a really, really solid list of guys that really make you feel really, you know, confident when it comes to that practice squad. And Omar Khan announced that he also announced, moving away from the practice squad here, that all injured players, being Jaquan Brisker, Sebastian Joseph Day, DK Metcalf, and Michael Pittman Jr. are all okay and will be available for week one. This is great news to hear if you're a Steelers fan. I don't think anyone was necessarily worried about maybe, you know, about these guys not making, but just to give us some good assurance. Again, 13, only 13 days out from the regular season, you're going to be able to see all of these guys play. And it's hard to say if they're fully healthy. The word okay, it's hard to, you know, really decipher a whole lot of out of that. But if they're playing, they're going to be good to go. Omar Khan also had to say, Ben Skronick and Will Howard, they both suffered concussions against the Buffalo Bills in that last preseason game. And then Riley Nowakowski has an ankle injury. But all three of those guys, just like the four right above, are trending to play week one and be ready to go week one. So all these players that you possibly had injury concerns just a day ago, all are looking good. Now I want to end on this. It feels like every single episode, we're giving you guys updates on this situation, but we got to talk about quarterback Joey Porter Jr. Again, Omar Khan was asked if Joey Porter Jr. will play week one. He said, anyone we feel is healthy and available to us, we expect to practice. Obviously, Joey Porter Jr. has not been practicing. He's been holding out for that contract. Khan also adds, they still hope to get a deal done with Porter, but they also will continue to keep the organizational rule of not negotiate during the regular season. So this gives us a time frame for Joey Porter Jr. If nothing's done from now until probably Sunday, September 13th at midnight, Joey Porter Jr. is going to play this entire year without a contract. What does that mean for his availability if he doesn't have a contract? Honestly, I don't think anyone really knows. It would be easy to say maybe he wouldn't play and you would hope that he wouldn't do that. Again, you're going to have to make sure you're subscribed to the channel as that saga keeps raging on. I just wanted to really bring that up because I think that organizational rule is, it's just kind of a head scratcher to me. I know the Pittsburgh Steelers have always done that. Of course, it's an organizational rule, and they want to focus on the regular season, but Joey Porter Jr. is a guy that even if it takes a little bit longer, if it creeps into week two, week three, but you can get it done, I think you get it done. I don't think you wait on that until the end of the regular season and just keep agitating this player more and more and more. But with all that news, with the practice squad signings, with the Joey Porter Jr. situation, with all those injuries, let me know what you think about all that stuff down in the comments, and we'll be back very, very soon with more Steelers news.