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.
OL TYLER BEACH
Experience/age: No regular-season roster time, turned 25 this past week
Contract status: $795,000 cap hit if he makes the team in 2024
The past: The 6-foot-6, 295-pound Beach appeared in 57 college games for Wisconsin, making 29 starts over five seasons. Nineteen of his starts for the Badgers were at left tackle, seven at right tackle and three as an “extra” tackle (tight end). At one point or another Beach took game snaps at every position along the offensive line other than center. He earned third-team all-Big Ten status from the conference coaches in 2021 when he started 12 games at left tackle. Beach signed with the Houston Texans as an undrafted free agent last year and spent all of summer workouts and training camp with that organization. He joined the Steelers via a reserve/future contract in January.
2024 outlook: Though the Steelers’ website lists Beach as a tackle on the roster, the official roster designates him as “guard/tackle” and it is more likely Beach reps at guard. During pre-draft evaluations, that was more the position he was projected to play at the pro level. Then again, last preseason with Houston (according to Pro Football Focus) 83 of the 89 offensive snaps Beach played were at tackle. And for what it’s worth (not much), only 10 tackles who played as many snaps as Beach during last year’s preseason had a better PFF pass rush grade than Beach.
The Steelers, like most teams, value versatility in their depth pieces along the offensive line. In that sense, it’s plausible that Beach could show enough during camp to stick on as a practice-squad piece able to fill in for reps at any position.
