Steelers 2-a-days, plus 1: Tegray Scales, Christian Scotland-Williamson, Conor Sheehy

Editor’s note: From now until the first practice of training camp at Saint Vincent, the Trib will be running through the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 90-man roster, assessing each player’s outlook for the 2019 season. The breakdown will go through the roster in mostly alphabetical order, (at least) two per day, between June 14 and July 26.

Because Christian Scotland-Williamson allows the Steelers a 91st roster spot as part of the International Player Pathway initiative, this is a special edition of 2-a-days: Three players are highlighted today.

LB TEGRAY SCALES

Experience: Spent 2018 rookie training camp with Los Angeles Rams, and briefly in December on the Indianapolis Colts’ practice squad

Contract status: $495,000 cap hit in 2019, under contractual control for four accrued seasons

2019 outlook: Scales was a highly productive and decorated player in college, graduating among the top 10 in Indiana history in tackles, sacks and tackles for loss, and he garnered all-Big Ten (2017) and second-team All-America (2016) honors. He lacks the desired measurables for the ideal NFL linebacker, though, which led to his undrafted status last year. The Steelers believed he was worth a look to see if his production somehow could translate. At very least, Scales could show to be a quality special-teams player or an intelligent playmaking scout-team presence that would make him good for the practice squad. Scales has been projected at inside and outside linebacker in the pros but is with the Steelers on the inside.

Tegray Scales is going to be one heck of a value pick for a team. pic.twitter.com/OkbCKj9d92

— Jonah Tuls (@JonahTulsNFL) February 24, 2018

TE CHRISTIAN SCOTLAND-WILLIAMSON

Experience: Spent last season on Steelers’ practice squad

Contract status: $495,000 cap hit in 2019, under contractual control for four accrued seasons

2019 outlook: A London native who was a standout in professional rugby, Scotland-Williamson is about a year and a half into his American football career. It’s been made possible by the NFL’s International Player Pathway program that’s given the Steelers nothing to lose by keeping him around. Scotland-Williamson is the proverbial kid in a candy store, enjoying his NFL tenure, and teammates and coaches have taken to him. But it’s time to start producing if he’s going to have a future at the professional level. Listed at 6-foot-9, 274 pounds, Scotland-Williamson’s athleticism isn’t in question. He’s worked diligently on proper technique for leveraging as a blocker, and Scotland-Williamson staying after practice to catch balls out of the JUGS machine also has been a regular sight (the rugby ball is different and, perhaps more important, is thrown differently).

For a 6-foot-9 Brit who shunned soccer and basketball because, as he put it, “I liked running into people a little but too much,” American football is something of a dream come true for Christian Scotland-Williamson. #Steelers https://t.co/4y8QNqN3Dl

— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) May 29, 2018

DE CONOR SHEEHY

Experience: Spent 2018 training camp with Green Bay as an undrafted free agent

Contract status: $495,000 cap hit in 2019, under contractual control for four accrued seasons

2019 outlook: Sheehy was a senior captain, 2½-year starter and four-year contributor to one of the nation’s best defenses at Wisconsin. Like Scales, he’s another Big Ten defensive standout who isn’t a combine warrior or physically imposing to NFL scouts. But at 6-4, 295, he could serve as a 3-4 NFL defensive lineman. Sheehy is competing against a host of others in Steelers camp at a position that has a strong top four but has an opening at the bottom of the rotation. Strength, apparently, is not an issue: According to NFL.com, Sheehy finished second at a national powerlifting competition as a college sophomore.

The #Packers just signed @BadgerFootball DE Conor Sheehy as an UDFA. Pretty raw prospect but I feel like a guy this wide shouldn’t be able to shoot the gap like this. pic.twitter.com/WeVTI2x4Md

— Brandon Carwile (@PackerScribe) May 4, 2018

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