‘Doubt me? I hope you do:’ Steelers' Gunner Olszewski out to regain All-Pro form

When Mitch Trubisky lost his job as Pittsburgh Steelers starting quarterback during a Week 4 game last season, he wasn’t the only veteran free agent signed over the offseason to suffer such a fate.

Gunner Olszewski’s second fumble/muff in a three-game span meant he was demoted, too. And like Trubisky, who only regained his gig when replacement Kenny Pickett was injured, Olszewski returned punts or kickoffs again last season only when replacement Steven Sims was inactive because of injury.

“You can’t change it,” Olszewski said of last season, in which his muff of a Week 2 punt led to a New England touchdown that proved decisive in a 17-14 Steelers loss.

“If you want to define me by one play, go ahead. But doubt me? I hope you do.”

Over the offseason, Sims left via free agency. So Olszewski, a 2020 All-Pro returner, figures to have the inside track on regaining the job in training camp and the preseason.

Considering Olszewski’s confidence, surely he agrees the jobs are his to lose, right?

“No,” Olszewski said after minicamp last month. “I feel like they are hopefully going to try to give everybody in that room a chance to put their best foot forward, and I look forward to putting my best foot forward in the preseason.”

“Personally, I don’t like hearing guys who don’t sound like they understand football making decisions on our game.

"The ‘lab coats’ are changing our game. They never played football, and now they’re making decisions for us. It feels wrong."https://t.co/R74ORDE2Dq

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) June 15, 2023

Olszewski has been proving people wrong since graduating high school, when no Division I football programs wanted him. Then, after being the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Defensive Player of the Year his final season at Bemidji State, no NFL team drafted him in 2019. None so much as signed him as an undrafted free agent.

It wasn’t until Olszewski’s second tryout at a rookie minicamp that he was signed — by the Patriots. He was moved to offense and won the team’s punt return job as a rookie. By his second season, Olszewski was returning kickoffs, too.

But after the 2021 season, New England did not tender him a contract to hold his rights through restricted free agency. The Steelers pounced, giving Olszewski a two-year, $4.2 million contract with the idea he would serve as their returner for 2022 and 2023.

“You have to earn a spot at the table, and that’s what’s so special about this game,” Olszewski said. “Last year, it felt like the job was given to me, and I don’t want that again. I have never had anything handed to me, so I am looking forward to proving myself to the coaches and my teammates.”

Barring an unexpected development such as starting receiver Diontae Johnson getting another audition as a returner (he hasn’t handled such duties since 2020) or another outside acquisition, Olszewski doesn’t have any veteran competition to return punts or kickoffs this summer.

It’s difficult to find another player on the Steelers roster who has any experience returning kicks or punts at the college level. (Calvin Austin III and Ja’Marcus Bradley qualify.) Certainly, Jordan Byrd is Olszewski’s primary competition among those on the Steelers roster now. Byrd was a three-time All-Mountain West Conference honoree as a punt and kickoff returner.

“I like the guys we have got back there,” Olszewski said of the group of returners. “Everybody’s fast, I can tell you that.”

At this level, yes, every candidate to return kicks or punts is fast. But not everyone is a former All-Pro.

Olszewski dismisses that status only as, “That’s in the past.” And that’s the same way he addresses his fumble troubles from last season.

In explaining his simple approach to the upcoming camp, Olszewski shared a line he said his father instilled in him: “Hard work ain’t hard; hustle’s free.”

“You’re only as good as your last game,” Olszewski said. “And last year I didn’t have a good year, and I’m man enough to admit that, so all I can do is the things that I did to get me to where I was and do those again.”

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