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Player: Dustin Vaughan
Position: QB
School: West Texas A&M
Overview: Beyond Ben Roethlisberger the Steelers quarterback situation is murky at best. Bruce Gradkowski injuring his leg in the preseason game against the Lions only complicates that since leg injuries like that can linger for a while before he feels completely healthy.
All of that brings us to Dustin Vaughan, a player that spent some time with the Cowboys and Bills before being signed by the Steelers. Vaughan, who was undrafted, initially made the 53-man roster of the Cowboys in 2014 after a good camp, but after he struggled last year he was cut before the final roster was set. Vaughan is a difficult player to evaluate because he spent time at a small school and put up numbers like he was in a video game. He was 31-8 as a starter and passed for 5,401 yards, 53, touchdowns, and 10 interceptions his senior year while finishing second in the Harlon Hill award voting (the best player in division two).
Albeit all of that occurred while playing against far more inferior talent levels than most draft picks. In the preseason game against the Lions Vaughan completed 6/11 passes for 50 yards but was also sacked three times, so not a game changing performance, to say the least. Landry Jones and Bruce Gradkowski both have experience when it comes to the NFL so if Vaughan wanted to surpass one of them on the depth chart he would need to start lighting the world on fire with his play starting right now.
Strengths:
Great size for the position
Intelligent
Noted leader -voted captain by his teammates at school
Great accuracy throwing short to intermediate
Tough
Weaknesses:
Below average mobility -takes a lot of sacks
Played in pistol formation spread offense-still struggling to adapt to NFL offenses
Still learning what he can and can't get away with versus the top competition
Chances of Making the team: 25%