{"id":228805,"date":"2025-07-23T04:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T04:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/228805\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T04:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T04:40:09","slug":"beat-writer-believes-its-a-make-or-break-camp-for-demarvin-leal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/228805\/","title":{"rendered":"Beat Writer Believes It’s A ‘Make Or Break Camp’ For DeMarvin Leal"},"content":{"rendered":"

While some aren\u2019t sure it\u2019s an area of strength yet<\/a>, the Pittsburgh Steelers made several additions to their defensive line this offseason, mainly through the draft. As a result, it\u2019s going to create some roster battles for some players on the bubble. According to Steelers insider Ray Fittipaldo, one player who\u2019s at risk is DeMarvin Leal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate to do it to this guy, because he\u2019s a third-round pick, but it\u2019s a make-or-break camp for DeMarvin Leal,\u201d Fittipaldo said on the Chipped Ham and Football<\/a> podcast on Tuesday. \u201cLet\u2019s face it. He\u2019s coming off a season where he injured his neck. He spent it on injured reserve the entire season. He\u2019s just a guy who\u2019s had a hard time finding a role on this football team\u2026 He\u2019s kind of been fighting that tweener status, and obviously the injury last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been something of an unfair start to DeMarvin Leal\u2019s career. Leal had some opportunities during the first two seasons of his career. He played in a combined 23 games in 2022 and 2023. Then, in Pittsburgh\u2019s Week 5 loss to the Dallas Cowboys last year, Leal suffered a neck injury<\/a> that kept him out for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

That injury probably couldn\u2019t have come at a worse time. As a third-round pick, Leal was coming off an unimpressive first two years of his career. He had just one career sack, two pressures, and three tackles for a loss during that span. Leal also struggled with tackling in his rookie year, posting a missed tackle rate of 17.6-percent.<\/p>\n

As a result, he wasn\u2019t seeing the field much before his injury in 2024. Even at a position group lacking depth, DeMarvin Leal was on the field for just 51 snaps across those five games.<\/p>\n

The additions Pittsburgh made this offseason make Leal\u2019s future in Pittsburgh more complicated. The Steelers drafted Derrick Harmon, Jack Sawyer, and Yahya Black and picked up Daniel Ekuale in free agency. Leal has to fight them, plus players like Logan Lee, Isaiahh Loudermilk, and Dean Lowry, for a roster spot.<\/p>\n

That said, there may be a saving grace for Leal. As a third-round pick, he was drafted relatively high. The Steelers might aim to keep him over some of those aforementioned names, even though he\u2019s entering his fourth year. His neck injury may also give him some patience with the coaching staff. While we all want to see Leal make progress recovering from that injury, Fittipaldo presents the unfortunate reality he\u2019s currently in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While some aren\u2019t sure it\u2019s an area of strength yet, the Pittsburgh Steelers made several additions to their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[37467,10037,7,6,520,12744,57,2360,7827,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-228805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-chipped-ham-and-football","9":"tag-demarvin-leal","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-post-gazette","14":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","15":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","16":"tag-ray-fittipaldo","17":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114900711804993454","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}