{"id":375119,"date":"2025-09-17T13:20:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T13:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/375119\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T13:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T13:20:10","slug":"steelers-stock-up-on-former-patriots-before-playing-new-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/375119\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers Stock Up On Former Patriots Before Playing New England"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years, Steelers fans would point out every time the Patriots under Bill Belichick signed one of their cuts before a game. This year, it\u2019s Mike Tomlin signing former New England players just before the two teams square off. Although the intel they might be able to provide isn\u2019t the primary reason for their employment, it also doesn\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, the Steelers signed former Patriots ILB Ja\u2019Whaun Bentley<\/a> to their practice squad. Given Patrick Queen\u2019s rib injury, and Malik Harrison\u2019s absence on special teams, there is even a non-zero chance that he actually dresses and plays as an elevation. And there are few players in the league right now who might know more about the Patriots than him.<\/p>\n

A 2018 fifth-round pick, Ja\u2019Whaun Bentley spent his entire career with the Patriots before his March release, signing with the Steelers\u2019 practice squad yesterday. Over seven years, he made 68 starts across 83 games, logging 3,665 defensive and 357 special teams snaps. He only played 61 snaps last year, but he missed almost the entire season due to injury<\/a>. He had been a regular starter since 2020 and had hardly played special teams since.<\/p>\n

Bentley is a 6-2, 250-pound thumper, reminiscent of another former Patriots linebacker the Steelers recently employed in Elandon Roberts. For whatever reason, they opted to move on from Roberts this offseason, signing Malik Harrison instead.<\/p>\n

Through the first two games, however, the Steelers\u2019 inside linebackers have been overmatched physically. Patrick Queen and Payton Wilson might be the most athletic duo in the league, but that doesn\u2019t stop linemen from steamrolling you in the run game. When the Steelers previously had those issues, they brought in one former Patriots linebacker in Roberts. Even though Bentley is currently on their practice squad, he could find his way onto the field eventually.<\/p>\n

Granted, the Patriots have a new head coach in Mike Vrabel, so the Steelers will only be able to learn so much from Bentley. They also have another former Patriots defender on the roster in Jabrill Peppers, whom they signed last week.<\/p>\n

As noted, the Patriots released Bentley in late March, so the Steelers won\u2019t learn much from him about Mike Vrabel. But New England carried Jabrill Peppers right until the end, so that\u2019s a different story. There is still some carryover from one head coach to another, though.<\/p>\n

And the Steelers have other former Patriots, as well. This spring they signed Daniel Ekuale, who played for the Patriots from 2021-2024. They also have Jonnu Smith and Calvin Anderson, each of whom had somewhat recent stints there.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the ball, the Patriots also have two former Steelers, most notably Robert Spillane. He is a starter for them, but he hasn\u2019t played for Pittsburgh in a couple years. More immediate is special teamer Mark Robinson, who spent his whole career with the Steelers until final cuts this year. Last year, they brought in Chukwuma Okorafor. Previously, they also brought in Sean Davis, Chidi Iwuoma, and a bunch of names you wouldn\u2019t even remember because they never ended up playing for the Patriots, mysteriously vanishing after the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For years, Steelers fans would point out every time the Patriots under Bill Belichick signed one of their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,7627,7899,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,57,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-375119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jawhaun-bentley","10":"tag-jabrill-peppers","11":"tag-new-england","12":"tag-new-england-patriots","13":"tag-newengland","14":"tag-newenglandpatriots","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-patriots","17":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","18":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115219845872503828","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375119","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=375119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}