Steelers 2-a-days: Bigger role for Tyson Alualu? CB Trajan Bandy an intriguing UDFA

Editor’s note: Leading up to a unique Pittsburgh Steelers training camp staged at Heinz Field this year, the Tribune-Review will be running through the team’s 90-man roster, assessing each player’s outlook for the 2020 season. The breakdown will go through the roster, in mostly-alphabetical order, two per day, between June 9 and July 23, a day that was originally planned to be reporting day for players to camp. (Contract data courtesy spotrac.com).

DL TYSON ALUALU

Experience: 11th season

Contract status: $3.625 million cap hit in 2020, will be free agent after season

2020 outlook: Alaulu is entering his fourth season with the Steelers after spending the first seven years of his career with the team that took him 10th overall in the 2010 draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars. But in 2020 and at age 33, Alualu could have the most significant role he’s had during any of his time in Pittsburgh. The offseason departure of Javon Hargrave in free agency leaves a void on the defensive line. Alualu is by far the most experienced (and safest) choice to take the most snaps at nose tackle and as the top fill-in when star ends Cameron Heyward and Stephon Tuitt need rest.

Alualu has been a reliable veteran presence since joining the Steelers, and he’s in the final season of his second two-year contract with them. Second-year Isaiah Buggs, rookie seventh-round pick Carlos Davis and veteran nose tackle Dan McCullers are other candidates to pick up the slack following the loss of Hargrave. Alualu started in place of Tuitt last season after Tuitt’s season-ending pectoral surgery in October.

CB TRAJAN BANDY

Experience: Undrafted rookie

Contract status: $613,000 cap hit in 2020, first season of three-year rookie deal

2020 outlook: Bandy was a highly-regarded recruit to Miami and made a big splash during a nationally televised win against Notre Dame as a freshman, returning an interception 65 yards for a touchdown in 2017. It was perhaps the seminal moment of those “Turnovers Chain” Hurricanes. Listed by the Steelers at 5-foot-9, 186 pounds, Bandy declared for the draft as a junior but was not picked. That in part was because of a measured size at the combine of 5-7 ¾, 180 pounds. But Bandy ran the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds and is considered by the scouting community as something of a Mike Hilton clone: a small but scrappy DB who tackles well and is good in hand-to-hand combat. With Hilton entering the final year of his contract, Bandy is an intriguing candidate as a future NFL slot corner.

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