The Steelers are keeping one of their own. Pittsburgh is re-signing receiver Eli Rogers, a source told Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com (Twitter link).
Per Florio, it’s a one-year deal for Rogers. It’s the latest move the Steelers are making to try and help replace Antonio Brown. The team also signed former Colts and Jaguars receiver Donte Moncrief to a two-year deal earlier. This news comes after the Steelers’ failed pursuit of Tyrell Williams. Rogers was an undrafted free agent in 2015, and missed his entire rookie season with an injury.
He came out of nowhere and had a breakout season in 2016, catching 48 passes for 594 yards and three touchdowns in just 13 games. It was a promising debut, but he took a pretty big step backwards the next season when he had just 149 yards and 18 catches. Then in the playoffs, he suffered a torn ACL. The ACL took a long time to recover from, and Rogers didn’t end up making it back until Week 15 of last year.
He did get pretty involved in the offense at the end of the year, catching seven passes for 57 yards in Week 17, which could be a good sign for him moving forward. The Steelers will have JuJu Smith-Schuster as their undisputed number one receiver next year, but after him the situation is up in the air. Rogers, Moncrief, and second-year player James Washington will all be competing for targets behind Smith-Schuster, and any one of them could break out.