Steelers 2-a-days: Free-agent signee CB Levi Wallace, depth WR Tyler Vaughns
Editor’s note: From now until the first practice of training camp at Saint Vincent College, the Trib will be running through the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 90-man roster, assessing each player’s outlook for the 2022 season. The breakdown will go through the roster in mostly-alphabetical order, two per day, between June 11 and July 25. Contract data courtesy spotrac.com.
WR TYLER VAUGHNS
Experience: Spent all of last year’s regular season on the Steelers’ practice squad as an undrafted rookie
Contract status: $705,000 cap hit if he makes the active roster in 2022
2022 outlook: Vaughns has the pedigree of being one of the most highly-recruited wide receivers out of high school in the 2016 incoming class. The southern California native had a productive career at USC with 222 catches for 2,801 yards and 20 touchdowns in 45 games. Only two players in Trojans history had more receptions. But it wasn’t enough to get him drafted last year, and the Indianapolis Colts waived him at the conclusion of their training camp. The Steelers scooped him up and have held on to him since.
Special teams coach Danny Smith noted that Vaughns makes it known he can return punts — he had an 82-yard touchdown among 30 returns in college. When it comes to offense, the 6-foot-2, 187-pound Vaughns doesn’t have off-the-charts athletic traits, but he was known for having good hands.
On a team that needs to replace three wide receivers lost to free agency (including one who handled all the return duties), no stone will be left unturned (to borrow a Mike Tomlin cliché). Vaughns will have some level of opportunity in camp.
Signed to a two-year, $8M contract on the second day of unrestricted free agency in March, Levi Wallace is expected to serve as one of the three cornerbacks who most often are on the field for the Steelers. https://t.co/T4lQTHreT3
— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) June 26, 2022
CB LEVI WALLACE
Experience: 5th season
Contract status: $2.517 million cap hit in 2022, signed through 2023
2022 outlook: Wallace joined the Steelers on a two-year, $8 million deal on the second day of unrestricted free agency this spring. A former walk-on at Alabama who made the Bills as an undrafted free agent in 2018, Wallace was a 3½-year starter on the outside for some quality Buffalo teams. He was signed ostensibly to replace Joe Haden, who’d started for five seasons for the Steelers but was allowed to walk in free agency as he turned 33 this spring.
Interestingly, Wallace’s contract is identical to the one the Steelers gave Ahkello Witherspoon. Those two join veteran returnee Cameron Sutton as the presumed top three cornerbacks this season. Though Sutton — by salary, tenure and last season’s precedent — begins camp as the CB1, it is most likely that when the Steelers are in their most-used defensive package (the nickel) that Sutton will move inside while Wallace and Witherspoon man the outside. The latter two have been outside corners during their careers, and Sutton has played at various spots.
Wallace had six interceptions over his past 45 games (two coming against the Steelers).
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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