Editor’s note: From now until the first practice of training camp at Saint Vincent College, TribLive is running through the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 90-man roster, looking at each player and assessing his outlook for the 2024 season. The breakdown will run in alphabetical order with at least two players each day between June 14 and July 25. Contract data courtesy spotrac.com.
DT BREIDEN FEHOKO
Experience/age: 19 regular-season games between 2020-22, turns 28 in October
Contract status: $1.055 million cap hit if he makes the team on a one-year contract in 2024
The past: Fehoko has been a continuous member of the organization since signing as a free agent in spring 2023, and he spent almost half of the regular season on the 53-man active roster. Fehoko, though, did not play during a regular-season game. That somewhat belied his performance during training camp when he appeared he could be a contributor on the defensive line. But the 6-foot-3, 300-pound interior lineman did not make the initial active roster when the season began.
Fehoko’s prior pro experience came with the Los Angeles Chargers, with whom he signed as an undrafted free agent in 2020. His two appearances that season (21 total snaps) came as late-season elevations off the practice squad. In 2021, Fehoko appeared in eight games with one start and played roughly a quarter of the Chargers’ snaps in those games. The following year he was on the field for more than half of Los Angeles’ defensive plays over the nine games (three starts) he played.
Fehoko’s experience is on the interior, focusing primarily on nose tackle and then on out — and that’s what he played during last season’s Steelers camp.
2024 outlook: The defensive line position room got no less crowded this year than last, and a case could be made that the Steelers are deeper yet in 2024. That could mean Fehoko once again is an odd man out, at least as it pertains to the active roster.
Still, he is a respected presence in the locker room and clearly has the trust of coaches. With two 30-something starters who have recent injury histories (Cameron Heyward and Larry Ogunjobi) and an abundance of less proven players among the Steelers d-line corps, Fehoko is a nice insurance policy to have. But the numbers game of Heyward, Ogunjobi, the emerging Keeanu Benton, veteran free-agent signing Dean Lowry, rookie draft pick Logan Lee, veteran stalwart Montravius Adams and relatively recent third-round pick DeMarvin Leal (and others) doesn’t leave much of an opening for Fehoko.
That, of course, discounts injury. And the bet is that Fehoko has a role similar to what he played last season for the Steelers — a break-in-case-of-emergency big body that the Steelers can feel comfortable turning to to provide reliable reps when needed.
