Justin K. Aller/Getty Images Rasheed Bailey #16 of the Carolina Panthers can't make the catch against Brian Allen #29 of the Pittsburgh Steelers during a preseason game on August 30, 2018.
Friday was a busy day around the NFL for tryouts and workouts, with several ex-Pittsburgh Steelers getting an opportunity to potentially get back in the league. For one, former Steelers fifth-round pick Brian Allen worked out for the New Orleans Saints, as per the NFL’s daily personnel notice.
Allen — 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds — appeared in 16 games for the Steelers in 2017-18, but the ex-Utah Ute has been a fringe NFL’er ever since. He went on to spend time with the Seattle Seahawks and Buffalo Bills before starting one game for the San Francisco 49ers in 2020, then joined the Cincinnati Bengals practice squad late that season. The Cleveland Browns subsequently signed Allen away from the Bengals in January 2021 and he appeared in three games with Cincinnati last year after the Bengals re-signed him.
This spring Allen was the first defensive back selected by the Birmingham Stallions in the 2022 USFL draft, where he was a teammate of former Steelers running back Tony Brooks-James.
For what it’s worth, the Saints showed a lot of interest in Allen prior to the 2017 draft, meeting with him at the NFL Combine and taking him to dinner later that same month.
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Former Steelers LS Kameron Canaday Works out for Broncos
Meanwhile, on Friday Denver worked out former Steelers long-snapper Kameron Canaday, one of four long-snapping specialists the Broncos had in for a tryout.
Broncos worked out long snappers Kameron Canaday, Joe Fortunato, Ryan Navarro and Matt Overton
Canaday, 28, was Pittsburgh’s long-snapper for four consecutive seasons, beginning in 2017 — the year in which he beat out sixth-round pick Colin Holba.
But in the summer of 2021, Canaday engaged in a “down to the wire” competition with linebacker Christian Kuntz, a three-time All-American at Duquesne and 2x Northeast Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Kuntz spent time with the Steelers in 2020 and earned a spot on the practice squad for part of 2021 following a tryout.
In the end, Kuntz won the job and the Steelers parted ways with Canaday, a former undrafted free agent out of Portland State who originally came into the NFL with Arizona in 2016, and appeared in three games for the Cardinals before joining the Steelers.
Canaday — 6-foot-4 and 245 pounds — has had several tryouts since losing his job with the Steelers, including a September 2021 workout with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But he has yet to catch on with a new team.
As for Kuntz, he’s an unlikely NFL survivor. He went undrafted in 2017 and didn’t get signed by an NFL team until four months later, only to get waived by the New England Patriots after one practice.
He also had brief engagements with both the Denver Broncos and Jacksonville Jaguars in 2018 before getting an initial tryout from the Steelers. He credits a tip he received at a Packers workout as the catalyst for ultimately earning a full-time NFL job.
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Steelers Release 1st Training Camp Depth Chart
In other news from Friday, the Steelers released the first depth chart of the 2022 season, featuring Mitch Trubisky as QB1, Mason Rudolph as the backup and 2022 first-round pick Kenny Pickett as the third-string QB.
Also of note: Kevin Dotson and Kendrick Green are listed as co-first teamers at left guard while Devin Bush and Robert Spillane are co-first team at left inside linebacker.
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Saints Work out Ex-Steelers CB; Broncos Try out Kameron Canaday