Editor’s note: From now until the first practice of 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 2024 season. The breakdown will run in alphabetical order with at least two players each day between June 14 and July 25. Contract data courtesy spotrac.com.

ILB ELANDON ROBERTS

Experience/age: 9th season, 30

Contract status: $4.67 million cap hit in 2024, after which scheduled for unrestricted free agency

The past: A captain for two prior teams, Roberts joined the Steelers in March 2023 via a two-year $7 million contract. A two-time Super Bowl champion and a three-time participant in the big game while spending his first eight pro seasons with the New England Patriots, Roberts from 2020-22 played for the Miami Dolphins. Interestingly, each season was on a one-year contract. Including 2023, only twice over eight seasons has Roberts not started at least two-thirds of his team’s games.

Roberts for the Steelers had his second consecutive 100-tackle season last year (101) to reach 558 (330 solo, 49 for loss) in his career. Roberts also has 13½ career sacks, posting at least one in each of the past seven seasons. According to Pro Football Focus, Roberts has accumulated 74 QB pressures (among 300 pass rush snaps) in his career.

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2024 outlook: The Steelers were drawn to Roberts in part because of his ability to blitz, and last season he was largely as advertised (16 pressures, per Pro Football Focus). Roberts also arrived in Pittsburgh with a strong reputation in stopping the run, and that played out as well. Roberts’ credentials as a leader and positive locker-room presence more than proved accurate, too.

But the aspect of Roberts that few believed in or predicted was in coverage. When the Steelers signed him last March it was during the same offseason in which they signed fellow inside linebacker Cole Holcomb. The idea was that Roberts would stuff the run on early downs while Holcomb was far more likely to be used in coverage. But when Holcomb and Kwon Alexander (another ILB veteran signed in 2023) were each lost via season-ending injury in November, the Steelers had little choice but to turn to Roberts as an every-down player. He responded. PFF’s subjective grades rate Roberts’ 2023 as the best overall season of his career as well as his best in coverage.

Groin and pectoral injuries, though, limited Roberts down the stretch and into the Steelers’ playoff game. And now in his 30s, the Steelers added two significant inside linebackers to the roster in $41 million free agent Patrick Queen and third-round pick Payton Wilson. With those two and Holcomb — who might or might not be healthy enough to play when the season begins — Roberts is at best one cog in a four-man ILB unit.

When deployed well, that’s fine. The Steelers know they can depend on Roberts to be a reliable, savvy leader on the defense. And they learned last year that, if needed, he can even be more than that.

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