We're often reminded about how the NFL is a business. Players say it all the time when they're talking about their contract status. And teams remind us of that constantly, as well, with the moves that they make.
But ultimately, this is a game. Played by men who have done it all their lives.
And the excitement of making a roster for the first time isn't lost on young players. Certainly, if you're Kenny Pickett, George Pickens or even DeMarvin Leal or Calvin Austin, you had some expectation of making the Steelers roster.
After all, the team used a draft pick on those players. Heck, even Connor Heyward, a sixth-round pick, and Mark Robinson, one of the team's two seventh-round selections, had to feel pretty good about their chances of making it. They had seen the numbers whittled down at their respective positions, tight end and linebacker, in recent weeks.
For Jaylen Warren, however, this week was a roller coaster ride.
Warren, an undrafted rookie running back out of Oklahoma State, didn't get the big signing bonus fellow undrafted rookie Mataeo Durant did. He wasn't a draft pick like Najee Harris, Benny Snell or Anthony McFarland.
And often times, those kind of things matter. So, despite consistently getting second-team reps in practice the past couple of weeks, often sharing that role with Snell, Warren was on pins and needles earlier this week as he awaited the cutdown to 53 players by 4 p.m. Tuesday.
"Nobody came and told me I’m off (the team). I was just watching the time. ’15 more minutes.’ People were coming up to me and saying congrats, but I was like, ‘We’ve got 20 more minutes before 4,'" Warren said Wednesday.
"I was anxious. But I was like, whatever happens, happens. I can’t control the outcome. I put everything I could out there. If somebody came up to me and told me I was getting cut, it is what it is. I had my head on a swivel though, hoping a guy with a paper didn’t come up to me and ask for my iPad."
That guy, named "The Turk" in NFL circles, never came. And Warren, whose career had taken him from junior college in Utah to Utah State and then Oklahoma State, had made it. At least for now.
"When it hit 4 o’clock. I was like kind of relieved, but you’ve still got work to do," he said.
Indeed.
Warren was the second-best running back in Steelers training camp this summer. That's not my assessment. I heard that news early in camp from those who assess such things.
But there have been cases in the past where a young player has flashed his talent, only to fall off in later practices or when the preseason games begin. That didn't happen for Warren, though a fumble in the team's first preseason game did lead to him carrying a ball around with him, tucked under his arm, for a week.
And with Harris, the team's top draft pick a year ago, in place, Warren had to prove he could play a role on special teams.
At 5-foot-8, 215 pounds, he doesn't look quite like everyone else running down on kickoffs or blocking on punt coverage, but he attacked that the same way he did when he opened eyes in the Steelers' first backs-on-backers drill at Saint Vincent College.
"I feel like blocking was one of the reasons I was overlooked in the draft process," Warren said. "I want to prove that I can block. It was a big thing for me."
So, the cousin of former Steelers running back Willie Parker, another former undrafted player who went on to greatness with the team, made sure he didn't fail at blocking that day, earning praise from Mike Tomlin.
He attacked playing special teams the same way.
Warren told me his only experience on special teams in college came as one of the off return-men at Oklahoma State last season. In the first three games. After that, he proved too valuable as a runner to expose to the berserkers who run down on kickoffs.
Now, he's one of them.
"Not really nervous," he said about his first time running down to cover a kick. "It gave me a high. Running down and hitting somebody, I felt like that’s fun. I was excited to do that.
"It’s not fun being hit."
But he understood that to make the roster, he had to show he could do it. Contributing on special teams is something that's a requirement for non-starters at most NFL positions.
"One-hundred percent," he said. "I understand it’s part of the game. It’s one of my favorite parts of the game. When I do it, I try to do it 100 percent."
Anything to continue living the dream, one he's held for a long time.
"Every day I come to the facility, I see the Steelers logo and I’m like, ‘I’m really going to the Steelers facility,'" Warren said. "I still get the same high I got from the first time I walked up in here.
"It’s still surreal at this point. I’ve got to tone it down and be focused. I can’t get too hyped and too star-struck. I’ve got to control it and just realize I’m playing the game I’ve been playing since I was 8."
That's it. It's just a game. But one that will now pay him $39,166 over the next 18 weeks for a total of $705,000. Not bad for a guy whose bonus to sign with the Steelers was just $4,000 in the spring.
"I’ve dreamt about this and it came true," Warren said.
• Warren was the only undrafted player to make the Steelers' 53-man roster this year.
But he's also one of seven rookies to make it, joining the aforementioned six draft picks.
The only draft pick to not make the roster, seventh-round quarterback Chris Oladokun, signed with the Chiefs to their practice squad.
Some have lamented the fact the Steelers used the 241st pick in this year's NFL Draft to select Oladokun. Some of those people even suggested that the Steelers somehow passed on taking a player with the 241st pick who could have "helped the team."
Seriously.
Oladokun did, in fact, help the team. At rookie orientation and in OTAs, he was useful. Pickett didn't need to take every offensive snap in those situations.
And, as I have written before, because the Steelers had signed Mitch Trubisky and drafted Pickett in the first round, they weren't going to entice any undrafted quarterback of note to sign with them after the draft. So, they selected Oladokun 241st in draft that included 262 players.
Had Dwayne Haskins not died in the offseason, Oladokun would not have been picked. But to suggest the Steelers somehow missed out on someone because they used the 241st pick on Oladokun is a bit ridiculous.
His presence, after all, didn't stop Warren from making this roster.
• I received an email from bookies.com that lays out the odds for who the first starting quarterback will be the first to get benched this season.
Somehow, Trubisky had the fourth-lowest odds behind Geno Smith of the Seahawks, Jacoby Brissett of the Browns and Marcus Mariota of the Falcons.
Certainly that's a tip of the cap to Pickett's draft status and how well he played in the preseason. But Trubisky played well, too.
But Tomlin has repeatedly said he's going to be patient with his starter.
"I don't want the 'starter' to think he's on a short leash," said Tomlin. "I want people to play to win and not to play not to lose, whether it's the game or it's a job. No, I want all of our guys, regardless of role and position to have a can-do attitude and to bring a spirit to work that is geared toward getting things done, as opposed to the opposite."
Things would have to go seriously wrong for a long time for Tomlin to pull the plug on Trubisky.
• The Steelers had five wide receivers on their 53-man roster to start the 2021 season. They're carrying seven wide receivers right now.
It appears Austin, who missed all of the preseason with a foot injury, is very close to returning. So, perhaps the Steelers will place him on injured reserve to start the season, thus getting down to six receivers.
But keeping seven receivers also raises the prospect that the shoulder injury suffered by Diontae Johnson in the final preseason game might be slightly worse that Tomlin thought.
That doesn't mean Johnson won't be ready to play in 11 days. But his injury seems to be more concerning than the one T.J. Watt suffered in the preseason finale.
"You saw him out there working today," Tomlin said Wednesday of Watt.
• The Steelers signed eight players on Wednesday to their practice squad, all of whom had been with the team in training camp.
They still have eight spots remaining.
I'll never understand the focus by some on who goes onto the practice squad and who does not. The practice squad is put together just for that reason -- to practice.
You're not hiding a player you really like on the practice squad. After all, they are freely available for any other team to sign and add to their 53-man roster. That's how the Steelers acquired Montravius Adams last season. He was signed off the practice squad of the Saints.
Does that mean practice squad players can't be developed? Of course not. But their main job during the season is to run the scout team. Most of the time, they're not even working on the offense or defense of the team they're with. Now, they do go to meetings and do positional drills with their teammates. So, there's some benefit there.
But teams don't typically put a real prospect on the practice squad.
