The Steelers were up against the salary cap all offseason, forced to make difficult decisions on who to keep, who to let go and how to move on from so many key pieces to what was ultimately an unfinished puzzle in 2020. This season, the impact of those choices on the need to rebuild, or at least re-tool, is staring the Steelers in the face — quite literally, most weeks.
As the Baltimore Ravens visit Pittsburgh for the first time this season, they’ll bring with them a left tackle who wears No. 78 and knows a thing or two about this rivalry. That’s because he used to be on the other side of it for six years. Alejandro Villanueva, the army veteran who became a fan favorite with a fantastic backstory and an ironman streak of starts on the offensive line, will be the latest in a long line of Steelers defectors to pop up on their 2021 schedule.
Sure, this happens every year in every sport, a natural upshot of player movement in free agency and the trade market. But lately, the Steelers have been on an uncanny run of seeing familiar faces, many of whom are very familiar, and the sight of Villanueva in purple Sunday will be the most surreal of all.
“You know, it's funny, I feel like I'm playing a lot of my teammates now,” longtime Steelers captain Cam Heyward said with a laugh Thursday. “It’s everybody. If I see another Pouncey, I’m gonna be like, ‘What the hell’s going on?’”
Maurkice and his twin Mike are off enjoying retirement, along with the likes of Vince Williams, Vance McDonald and David DeCastro (who hasn't announced he’s done with football, but hasn’t resurfaced since his abrupt release in June).
But other key members of the 2020 Steelers, and successful teams from years prior, continue to cash paychecks in the NFL — many of whom are having success, and often against the Steelers. The Steelers knew going into this season they’d have to do so without several returning starters. Such is life when you’re dealing with a salary cap, and paying an established quarterback who’s been the face of the franchise for nearly two decades, along with other accomplished veterans.
Let’s just look at the past four games, leading into this week’s matchup with Villanueva and the Ravens:
• Week 9 vs. Bears: Cassius Marsh, an outside linebacker who was with the Steelers late last season — even pressed into duty for 46 snaps in the wild-card game — and remained in Pittsburgh through this training camp and the preseason, had a fourth-quarter sack on Ben Roethlisberger. It could’ve changed the game, if not for a taunting penalty on Marsh — for looking at the sideline of the team that released him in August — that kept Roethlisberger’s drive alive. Marsh was called up from Chicago’s practice squad the day before the game.
• Week 10 vs. Lions: Mark Gilbert, a rookie cornerback who signed with the Steelers as a free agent just after the draft ended. He made it through a couple rounds of cuts and played a lot in the preseason, but didn’t make the initial 53-man roster. Gilbert, who comes from an Aliquippa family, circled back to the practice squad in Pittsburgh before the Lions poached him in October. He never played in a regular-season game with the Steelers, but in that wild overtime session, he forced a fumble on Diontae Johnson in Lions territory to thwart the last best scoring opportunity for Mason Rudolph before the 16-16 tie.
• Week 11 vs. Chargers: Matt Feiler started and played every snap at left guard for Los Angeles, as he’s done every game this season. With Feiler doing his part to pave the way, the Chargers rushed for 159 yards and two touchdowns in a 41-37 win. The Steelers opted to let Feiler leave in free agency, going cheaper on the offensive line with players on rookie contracts or short-term deals. Now he’s one of 33 offensive linemen to have not missed a snap so far this season.
• Week 12 vs. Bengals: Mike Hilton, an undrafted success story in Pittsburgh like Feiler, helped his new team finish off a season sweep of the AFC North rival he spent five seasons with. Oh, and you might recall his 24-yard interception return late in the second quarter that gave Cincinnati a 31-3 lead at halftime and essentially slammed the door on any faint comeback hopes.
Of course, Marsh and Gilbert were here today, gone tomorrow types, but other more prominent, recent former Steelers still await on the schedule. And several others are having big seasons for teams that are in much better shape than the one that either couldn’t afford or didn’t want to retain their services.
When the Steelers travel to Minnesota for “Thursday Night Football” next week, they’ll see longtime punter Jordan Berry handling those duties for the Vikings. Berry ranks ninth in the NFL in net yards per punt (42.2) while the rookie who beat him out, Pressley Harvin, finds himself 24th (38.7).
After that, the Steelers will take a trip down outside linebacker memory lane for two consecutive games. The Titans, atop the AFC South at 8-4, invested $82.5 million over five years in Bud Dupree, the Steelers’ first-round pick in 2015. But Dupree has been a bust thus far with just one sack in seven games, and there’s no guarantee he plays against the Steelers after he was placed on injured reserve Nov. 20 with an abdominal issue. He’d already missed three games because of a setback with the torn ACL that prematurely ended his Steelers tenure, and incidentally, one of his replacements has been Ola Adeniyi, also his backup in Pittsburgh.
In Kansas City later this month, Melvin Ingram will try to set the edge for the Chiefs. He’s not exactly in the same category as Dupree, Hilton or Villanueva, but his unceremonious exit at the trade deadline — for a sixth-round pick — was one of the juicier story lines of this season. Unspectacular as he was in six whole games as a Steeler, he left behind a void at backup outside linebacker, one the Steelers are still flailing to fill. In three games for the Chiefs (7-4) Ingram has just three tackles and is playing about half the snaps, but they’ve won all three and are now in first place in the AFC West.
Yes, Dupree, Ingram, Hilton and Villanueva all have landed in greener pastures, at least for now. Even Feiler’s Chargers are 6-5 and would sneak into the playoffs if they started today.
Over in the NFC, 2018 Pro Bowler James Conner, a hometown thanks to his stellar time at Pitt, has gone from struggling Steeler to dominant in the desert. Conner ranks second in the NFL with 12 rushing touchdowns for the Cardinals, owners of the league’s best record at 9-2.
Things aren’t going quite so well for the Eagles (5-7) but Steven Nelson — surprisingly cut by the Steelers in March — is an every-down player just as he was for two years here. And have you seen the Steelers cornerbacks lately with Joe Haden hurt?
Indeed, the Steelers are just trying to stay afloat, with a lack of depth plaguing them all over the field. They knew that would be the case when they had to part ways with all the above, but that doesn’t make it easier to see so many castoffs have so much left in the tank.
One of the side effects of the Steelers’ mostly sterling track record in player evaluation and roster construction over the past couple decades is that you rarely watch former players blossom once they're gone. General manager Kevin Colbert and his front office have been excellent at knowing who to keep, and who to let go, at least until this latest purge — and even then, their hands were tied, to an extent.
When Villanueva takes to the visitors’ sideline at Heinz Field, he’ll do so as the first Steelers Pro Bowler to face the Steelers since Le’Veon Bell in 2019 with the Jets. He’ll be the first to play in Pittsburgh since wideout Mike Wallace in 2016, also with the Ravens, and he’ll be the first multi-time Pro Bowler to make such a return since James Harrison in 2013 during his lone season with the Bengals.
“Al who?” Roethlisberger joked this week, then suddenly remembered the left tackle who protected his blind side for six seasons. “Al’s my guy. He’ll always be my guy.”
Villanueva lasted more than a month in free agency before signing a two-year, $14 million deal in Baltimore following the draft. He started the season at right tackle opposite All-Pro Ronnie Stanley, but when Stanley had ankle surgery in mid-October, Villanueva flipped back over to the side where he made 90 consecutive starts for the Steelers before they chose not to re-sign him.
With more penalties (6) and sacks allowed (7) this year than he had all of last season with the Steelers (4 and 3, respectively), according to Pro Football Focus, Villanueva is almost certainly on the decline at age 33. But the Ravens continue to run the ball as well as anyone, and he’ll try to keep that rolling against a defense that isn’t playing like the one he remembers sharing a locker room with.
“I don’t know,” Villanueva said Wednesday when asked by Baltimore media what it will feel like to come back. “We’ll see when I cross that bridge.”
Fort Pitt or Veterans? If there is any player out there from the other 31 teams who could rattle off a list of Pittsburgh landmarks, it’s probably Villanueva, who has raised all four of his children here, earned a graduate degree from Carnegie Mellon and became not just a fan favorite but a hero to countless Western Pennsylvanians for his tremendous backstory as a U.S. Army veteran before successfully transitioning from undrafted tight end to defensive end to left tackle.
“I think the media loves this rivalry,” the always introspective Villanueva said of Steelers-Ravens. “Obviously, the ratings go up, tickets go up. Neither of these teams want to bend a knee to the other. … This is just two good teams that happen to play each other twice a year, usually in the cold, from working towns, so everybody just wants to be the most ‘blue-collar,’ if you will.
“Fans are going to get into it. But, unfortunately, I cannot provide any further hype to the rivalry.”
Maybe not from his perspective, but it’s always a fun subplot when old friends turn to enemies, especially if it’s between these two franchises. Villanueva called Steelers coach Mike Tomlin one of the best minds in the NFL, and like a “father figure” to him. From the other side, the feeling seems to be mutual, with an understanding that they’d like this reunion to go better than those of the past couple weeks.
“I just think Al’s been a big contributor for us,” Heyward said. “We’ve had practice battles. It’s definitely weird him being over there. But that’s just the nature of the game.”
Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.
First Published: December 4, 2021, 1:00 p.m.
