Steelers A to Z: Rookie Montana Lemonious-Craig a late addition to WR room
Editor’s note: From now until reporting day to training camp at Saint Vincent College, TribLive is running through the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 90-man roster, looking at each player and assessing his outlook for the 2025 season. The breakdown will run in alphabetical order with at least two players each day between June 12 and July 23. Contract data courtesy spotrac.com.
WR MONTANA LEMONIOUS-CRAIG
Experience/age: Rookie, turns 23 this month
Contract status: $840,000 cap hit if he makes the team in 2025
The past: Montana is from California but spent his college career split between Colorado and Arizona. He came to Pennsylvania for a tryout at the Steelers’ rookie minicamp in May and made enough of an impression that he was signed two weeks later. The 6-foot-2, 194-pound Lemonious-Craig had 79 receptions for 965 yards and nine touchdowns in his college career. At Colorado from 2020-22, Lemonious-Craig totaled 23 receptions, 359 yards and three touchdowns but left the spring following the Buffaloes’ hire of Deion Sanders as coach and his ensuing roster turnover.
At Arizona, Lemonious-Craig played a complementary offensive role behind All-American and future NFL first-round pick Tetairoa McMillan (as well as 2024 draft pick Jacob Cowing). Lemonious-Craig had 45 catches for 468 yards and four touchdowns over 24 games for the Wildcats.
SANDERS ➡️ LEMONIOUS-CRAIG
98 YARDS ???? pic.twitter.com/ERo6s9wyYi
— Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) April 22, 2023
2025 outlook: Lemonious-Craig rarely played special teams in college, but you better believe he will be on coordinator Danny Smith’s units at Saint Vincent and during preseason games. If Lemonious-Craig has any chance to stick with the Steelers he will in part have to show some special-teams prowess. His testing numbers, as reported from his pro day, are not spectacular. But Lemonious-Craig has good size and strives to be a physical receiver. His best hope is to make some plays in practices, or at least show a willingness to work and display traits that would make him a viable practice participant and by extension a practice-squad candidate. If you include RB/WR Max Hurleman, the Steelers have 13 wide receivers on their camp roster.
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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