Exit Meeting: WR Ben Skowronek<\/p>\n
Experience: 5 Years<\/p>\n
The Steelers signed Ben Skowronek to a lucrative contract for a special teamer last year, and he rewarded them with a Pro Bowl season. In 17 games, he recorded 21 tackles\u2014mostly on special teams\u2014and recovered a fumble. He added another 3 tackles in Pittsburgh\u2019s playoff loss, taking over the mantle for the unit.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s a unit underdoing a great deal of change, including right at the top. Longtime special teams coordinator Danny Smith left after Mike Tomlin resigned. The unit could see a lot of change this offseason, with captain Miles Killebrew a free agent. As is Connor Heyward, though he is likely to re-sign. But it could be Ben Skowronek who takes over as captain.<\/p>\n
And somehow, he managed to score the Steelers\u2019 first touchdown of the season\u2014his only touchdown in two years. Thanks to broken coverage, good friend Aaron Rodgers found Skowronek wide open for a 22-yard touchdown in the season opener.<\/p>\n
That was one of 4 catches he made on the season on 6 targets, producing 69 yards. But while Ben Skowronek is not a deadly receiving threat, he still plays an important role on offense. At times, the Steelers have used him as a designated blocker, though a hand injury forced them to adapt an limit his offensive usage late in the season.<\/p>\n
In all, Skowronek played 159 offensive snaps and 310 special teams snaps. And he did plenty of work that doesn\u2019t fit neatly into stat sheets, whether it\u2019s downing punts or forcing fair catches or throwing blocks that help spring a return.<\/p>\n
But the Steelers can\u2019t go into another season in which Ben Skowronek is a top-four wide receiver on offense. In order for the unit to move forward, they have to force him into the special teams box. The unit has been so lacking that they can\u2019t afford this soft depth anymore. If that means adding three significant wide receivers this offseason, then that\u2019s what it means.<\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh Steelers find themselves licking their wounds after yet\u00a0another early playoff exit<\/a>. This is a repeated pattern for the organization, but with major change coming. As the Steelers conduct their own exit meetings, we will\u00a0go down the roster<\/a>\u00a0conducting our own. Who should stay, and who should go, and how? Who should expect a bigger role next season, and who might deserve a new contract? The resignation of Mike Tomlin makes those questions much more difficult to answer, but much more important. We\u2019ll explore those questions and more in these articles, part of an annual series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exit Meeting: WR Ben Skowronek Experience: 5 Years The Steelers signed Ben Skowronek to a lucrative contract for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[5429,7,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":["post-791444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-ben-skowronek","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-pittsburghsteelers","tag-steelers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116171082613034684","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791444","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=791444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}