Steelers’ Mike Tomlin Blessed Former Draft Pick By Cutting Him Before His Rookie Season: ‘It Was A Blessing In Disguise’

The Pittsburgh Steelers made a number of questionable selections in the NFL Draft towards the end of Kevin Colbert’s reign as general manager. During his last five years in the role, he had a very low hit rate on his selections, in all rounds of the draft. 2022 was his last draft before Omar Khan took over, and he selected two quarterbacks for the Steelers. Kenny Pickett obviously didn’t pan out, as he is now with the Philadelphia Eagles, while Chris Oladokun didn’t even make it past his first training camp. 

Pittsburgh selected Oladokun in the seventh round of the 2022 NFL Draft with the 241st overall pick. He was the fourth quarterback on the depth chart going into training camp, behind Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph. He was a long shot to make the roster from the start, and was released before the final wave of roster cuts. In a recent appearance on the Stuck In My Thoughts podcast, Oladokun recapped his final day with the Steelers.

“Coach [Mike] Tomlin was very transparent with me. When I got cut, giving me an opportunity to even cut me earlier than the last cut of the last preseason game. Just so I could find another opportunity. That was a blessing in disguise. I’ll always respect and love Coach Tomlin for that. Because he really did look out for me in terms of that.” 

It’s not often that NFL organizations do right by the player, releasing them in a timely manner so they can get picked up quickly by another team. After the final roster cutdowns, team’s rosters are pretty much set in stone. Some veterans will see opportunities elsewhere, but a seventh round pick with no experience getting picked up midseason is unlikely.

Oladokun barely saw any reps during the team’s training camp practices, as the organization was obviously more focused on their first-round quarterback, Pickett. He didn’t see any action in the preseason games either. The only reason Pittsburgh would have kept him around was to be on the practice squad, but Mike Tomlin decided to let him go and give him an opportunity elsewhere. Oladokun spoke more about his timely release. 

“I’m on the field warming up, about to go through a whole workout routine. We call them the grim reapers – saw him walking out towards the field and he was like, ‘Chris, they want you upstairs.’ I didn’t even get to play in the preseason. That was tough for me, but at the same time, I understood we had drafted Kenny in the first round. We had two good veteran backups as well, so they were trying to figure out that situation. Legit, I got cut and before I even got to my hotel, I was on the phone with the Chiefs.”

The NFL has recently changed how roster cutdowns work during the preseason. Now, teams can cut their rosters down from 90 players to 53 all at once at the end of the preseason. It used to go in waves, which is why Oladokun is so thankful towards the Steelers. They didn’t wait till the last wave, they gave him a chance to jumpstart his NFL career elsewhere.

Steelers Propelled Oladokun Into An Already Successful NFL Career

Oladokun has been with the Kansas City Chiefs ever since his release from Pittsburgh in 2022. The majority of that time has been spent on the practice squad, but he has seen preseason action and was even the team’s backup quarterback during a regular season matchup that Patrick Mahomes was sitting out of. 

Being given the opportunity to play for the Chiefs as a quarterback, even in a limited role, is something any backup signal-caller would love. Oladokun gets to learn from arguably the best quarterback in the NFL, and gets to play under one of the best coaches in Andy Reid. Pittsburgh’s former seventh-round pick has been in the league for two seasons, and already has two Super Bowl rings to show for it. That’s more rings than any player currently on the Steelers roster.