{"id":178994,"date":"2025-08-27T06:04:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T06:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/178994\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T06:04:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T06:04:15","slug":"why-two-recently-released-steelers-could-circle-back-to-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/178994\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Two Recently Released Steelers Could Circle Back To Roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers cut their roster down to 53 today, and in doing so, the team made two surprise cuts, letting go of CB James Pierre and S Chuck Clark<\/a>. Both Pierre and Clark had played well during training camp and the preseason, and both were expected to make Pittsburgh\u2019s roster. Just because they were cut today doesn\u2019t mean they won\u2019t be available come Week 1, though.<\/p>\n

The Steelers kept four quarterbacks on their initial 53-man roster<\/a>, with one of them being QB Will Howard, who didn\u2019t play in the preseason with a broken pinky. The team also kept CB Donte Kent, who hasn\u2019t practiced much as he deals with a lower leg injury and didn\u2019t play in the preseason. If the Steelers put Howard and Kent on IR today, they would\u2019ve either needed to rule both of them out for the season or designate them to return.<\/p>\n

Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette already reported the team plans to put Howard on IR<\/a> at \u201csome point.\u201d By waiting, the team doesn\u2019t have to decide on his future immediately and can opt to designate him to return later in the season. That wouldn\u2019t burn one of the eight designated-to-return spots the team gets for the season quite yet. The same goes for Kent, if the team opts to go that route.<\/p>\n

If the Steelers do place both Howard and Kent on IR, bringing back Pierre and Clark would seem like the two most logical moves. The team currently has just three safeties on its roster, with DeShon Elliott and Juan Thornhill the likely starters and Miles Killebrew, primarily a special teamer, as the backup. Clark would make a lot of sense as the third safety and primary backup, and he also offers some versatility as he\u2019s played in the slot during his career.<\/p>\n

With Pierre cut, there\u2019s an open question of who would be Pittsburgh\u2019s gunner across from Ben Skowronek. Pierre\u2019s been a valuable special teamer during his time in Pittsburgh, and recently, has been someone the Steelers can count on when they need cornerback depth in a pinch. Both Pierre and Clark have Week 1 roster bonuses they could earn if they\u2019re brought back on Pittsburgh\u2019s roster.<\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t be unprecedented for the Steelers to sign a player to the active roster days after releasing them, as they did with OT Trent Scott and LB Marcus Allen in 2023. The two were part of the final roster cuts but re-signed to the active roster on September 1 ahead of Week 1.<\/p>\n

Of course, the Steelers could also look elsewhere, with teams making cuts around the league. They could opt to sign someone other than Clark and\/or Pierre. But both are familiar with the scheme, with Pierre having been with the Steelers for multiple years and Clark spending most of training camp and the preseason in Pittsburgh. Both feel like logical moves, and we\u2019ll find out in the coming days if they do wind up circling back to Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers cut their roster down to 53 today, and in doing so, the team made two…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":178995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[101269,6199,31825,101270,1232,62,939,101271,67,132,68,7954],"class_list":{"0":"post-178994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-chuck-clark","9":"tag-donte-kent","10":"tag-james-pierre","11":"tag-marcus-allen","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-trending","15":"tag-trent-scott","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-will-howard"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115099223142199489","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}