3 things to look for in Phase III of Steelers OTAs

The Pittsburgh Steelers are set to take the field today at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex in order to begin Phase Three of OTA’s for the 2025 offseason. What makes Phase Three so different? Here is a rundown of what the Steelers can do at this point of the offseason according to Steelers.com:

Phase Three consists of the next four weeks of the program. Teams may conduct a total of 10 days of organized team practice activity, or “OTAs”. No live contact is permitted, but 7-on-7, 9-on-7, and 11-on-11 drills are permitted.

As the team takes the field and various reports come out about what’s going on during practice, what are some of the most important things to look for? Although it is just “football in shorts,” can be gleaned about various things? I asked these same questions last year and the answers are almost the same. For that reason, I thought it was good to revisit the subject.

Here are the top three things to keep an eye out for when it comes to reports Phase Three of Steelers 2025 OTAs:

Participation of certain players

At first glance, it might seem that there are players who are choosing not to participate, which is what is possible from Steelers captain Cam Heyward, be he is someone who doesn’t need to be on the field for OTAs. But really what I’m speaking about here is looking at players who are coming off injuries or perhaps wanting a new contract. I have yet to hear a report on if T.J. Watt is going to be participating in OTAs, but this could be both contract related or simply him not being there for all the activities. What’s more important is looking at players who are coming off injuries from last season and if they are ready to go. The first one that comes to mind for me is Troy Fautanu. I’m also curious about player such as Cole Holcomb, Roman Wilson, and Logan Lee, but the fact they were working their way back at the end of 2024 season has me less concerned. While their participation, or lack thereof, isn’t the ultimate determination of their expecations for the 2025 season, it will be an insight into their progress at this time of the year.

Where certain players fall in the pecking order

I’m not going to paint with a broad brush when it comes to lineups which occur during OTAs, but seeing where certain players fall to start things off will be quite interesting. Obviously a lot of Steelers’ Nation will look to see if Derrick Harmonn is out there with the first unit on the defensive line from the very beginning. I’m not getting my hopes up about this right now because it’s much more important for him to be in the first group at the end of training camp. Two players I am very curious about who were mentioned in the previous section are Cole Holcomb and Roman Wilson. Exactly where they fall on the depth chart when it comes to the units on the field may give some indication of the confidence the team has in them after not playing last year due to injury. Finally, seeing where things play out for non-injured players I might be the most curious about the slot cornerback and if a newly signed player like Brandin Echols will be out there first ahead of someone such as Beanie Bishop.

Keeping the medical staff on the sidelines

While injury concerns are true at all times, there are always reports across the NFL this time of year about a player getting hurt and missing the entire season. The biggest thing that can come out of the Steelers offseason program is for healthy players to remain healthy and players coming back from injury to still be moving in the right direction. Although the Steelers can’t win games during OT, if the injury bug bites hard they could put themselves in a much worse place to do so when the regular season rules around.

So there are the three biggest things to look for during the final phase of OTA’s ahead of mandatory mini camp. While these things will not spell out everything for the Steelers in 2025, they are the most telling things fans can get during this time of year.