Steelers make their first round of cuts to get to 85 players, sign another guard

Much like the 2021 season, NFL teams will be cutting down their preseason rosters by five players following each of the first two weeks of the preseason. With the deadline of 4 PM on Tuesday for teams to get to 85 players, the Steelers have announced their roster moves to be complacent with the NFL regulations. But even though the Steelers now have five less spots on their roster, they still made an addition by adding guard William Dunkle.

By adding another player, the Steelers had to remove six players from their roster. As was reported earlier that the Steelers were expected to put two veterans on the Reserve/Injured List, there still had to be four players who were released. Here are the players who were let go to trim the roster down to 85 on Tuesday:

Players to the Reserve/Injured List:

S Karl Joseph
WR Anthony Miller

Players released:

DT Doug Costin
OT Jake Dixon
P Cameron Nizialek
C Chris Owens

Both Miller and Joseph are vested veterans and can go directly on the Reserve/Injured list and do not have to pass through waivers. Karl Joseph left Saturday night’s game very early with a foot injury while Anthony Miller missed the contest with a shoulder injury.

For the other players who were released, two did not appear in the Steelers first preseason game. Both 2022 UDFAs offensive tackle Jake Dixon out of Duquesne and center Chris Owens from Alabama did not see the field for the Steelers on Saturday. Defensive tackle Doug Costin played 12 snaps for the Steelers and registered one tackle. As for punter Cameron Nizialek lack, he did all the punting duties for the Steelers first game where he had four punts for 177 yards with an average of 44.3 yards per punt with one touchback, one punt inside the 20 yard line, and a long 53 yards. With Nizialek now released, the punting duties now fall to Pressley Harvin III for the final two preseason games.

As for the Steelers newest member of the roster, William Dunkle was a 2022 undrafted free agent out of San Diego State. After not being selected in the draft, Dunkle was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles. Dunkle was released this past Sunday after appearing in the Eagles first preseason game on Friday. In Friday’s game, Dunkle played 25 snaps at right guard.

Stay tuned to Behind The Steel Curtain as the Pittsburgh Steelers continue their final week of training camp in preparation for Saturday’s preseason matchup in Jacksonville against the Jaguars.