Former USC WR Tyler Vaughns gains notice with clutch plays for Steelers in preseason

The key late-game plays that propelled the Pittsburgh Steelers to victories in each of their first two preseason games have had a common denominator.

Not a quarterback. Not a recognizable big name.

Wide receiver Tyler Vaughns.

Vaughns had the 24-yard touchdown with 12 seconds left in the 32-25 win against the Seattle Seahawks in the opener. Then he recorded three of the Steelers’ four receptions and 51 of the 52 yards from scrimmage in their go-ahead drive in the waning minutes of Saturday’s 16-15 win at the Jacksonville Jaguars.

“Tyler is a great player,” quarterback Kenny Pickett said after he threw the winning pass to Vaughns in the Seattle game. “I gave him a chance, and he made a move and scored.”

GAME-WINNER‼️

Re-watch our win on NFL+: https://t.co/C6T9f39EAk pic.twitter.com/Tien2QWKvE

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) August 14, 2022

A week later, it was Mason Rudolph at quarterback with the game on the line. Rudolph looked Vaughns’ way on four of the first five snaps (one fell incomplete) after the Steelers took over at their 48-yard line with 3 minutes, 3 seconds to play.

That’s Vaughns being the playmaker two weeks in a row over two winning drives engineered by two quarterbacks.

“All our quarterbacks can see what I can do out here,” Vaughns said Monday at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. “They see it in practice, and I am more of an in-game type of person so in the game they will see me out there when they are looking for a better matchup.”

Vaughns’ clutch plays have allowed him to enter the conversation for a spot at the back end of the roster during the regular season. At the very least, they figure to make him a favorite to serve on the Steelers practice squad in 2022 like he did for all of 2021 upon joining the organization.

The 6-foot-2, 184-pound Vaughns was released by the Indianapolis Colts after being signed as an undrafted free agent. That UDFA status was a hit to Vaughns, who had elected to forego a bonus season of college eligibility and who had been recruited to USC as one of the top high school WR prospects in the country in 2016.

Vaughns, statistically, lived up that hype, too, leaving the Trojans’ storied program with 222 catches that ranked him third on USC’s career list (15th-most in Pac-12 history).

“Leaving SC, coming out and getting undrafted wasn’t up to me. That was out of my control,” Vaughns said. “So it wasn’t something that I was thinking about, falling where I did fall. I just took it for what it was. Some people overlooked me, I felt, but it is what it is. At the end of the day, I still got my opportunity, I still got my foot in the door.”

Vaughns’ opportunity with the Steelers is amidst a crowded wide receivers position room that features a logjam after starters Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool and rookie George Pickens. Fourth-round rookie Calvin Austin III also is seemingly a lock for a spot on the active roster, leaving Vaughns battling Gunner Olszewski, Miles Boykin, Cody White, Steven Sims and Tyler Snead for whatever receiver jobs are left.

Until the late-game preseason heroics, Vaughns didn’t stand out but instead was plugging along, largely avoiding drops and mistakes. It was somewhat reminiscent of his college career in which he left as one of the most productive pass-catchers in the history of one of the country’s most storied programs but never led USC in receiving during a season.

Vaughns played with three other receivers who would be taken in the top half of the NFL Draft: Drake London, Michael Pittman and Amon-Ra St. Brown.

“It was never really a competition against anybody else at SC but myself,” Vaughns said. “I was just competing and applying myself to what I did the previous year just to better myself as a player and as a man.”

Now, Vaughns is taking a similar approach in his second NFL training camp.

“Just doing what I can for the team when I get the opportunity,” Vaughns said. “Whatever it takes, I’ll do.”

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