Will Newton/Getty Images Dwayne Haskins greets Marcus Baugh prior to a game against the Carolina Panthers on December 27, 2020.
On Friday the Pittsburgh Steelers announced the signing of former Ohio State tight end Marcus Baugh, a former undrafted free agent who played for the Washington Football team last season. To make room on the roster, the Steelers waived tight end Dax Raymond (injured).
We have signed TE Marcus Baugh and waived/injured TE Dax Raymond.
Marcus Baugh Has Spent Time With 3 NFL Teams
Baugh, 26, entered the NFL in 2018, signing with the then-Oakland Raiders after that year’s draft, but he was released prior to the start of that season. In 2019 went on to spend time with both the Carolina Panthers and the San Diego Fleet of the Alliance of America Football League, where he caught 13 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns.
In the spring of 2020 he signed a Reserve/Future contract with Washington, before going on to play in eight games last season, recording one reception for two yards.
The bottom line is that Baugh hasn’t yet found much success in the NFL, despite being described by Buckeye Sports Bulletin as “one of the better receiving tight ends in Ohio State’s history.” Listed by the Steelers at 6-foot-4 and 245 pounds, he caught 52 passes for 573 yards and seven touchdowns during his final two seasons at Ohio State.
He joins two other former Buckeyes on Pittsburgh’s 90-man roster: All-Pro defensive end Cameron Heyward; and quarterback Dwayne Haskins, who played with Baugh in Washington last season. The two were also teammates at Ohio State, before Haskins became a first-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.
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Baugh Faces an Uphill Battle to Make Pittsburgh’s Roster
It won’t be easy for Baugh to earn a roster spot, or even a place on Pittsburgh’s practice squad. It appears that former first-round pick Eric Ebron and 2021 second-round pick Pat Freiermuth will go into the season first and second on the depth chart, and former fifth-round pick Zach Gentry has had an impressive camp thus far, giving him the inside track on a third roster spot.
Don’t discount former undrafted free agent Kevin Rader, either. Rader spent most of the past two seasons on Pittsburgh’s practice squad and was elevated to the active roster near the end of last year. He went on to make his NFL debut against the Cleveland Browns in the season-finale, and also played in Pittsburgh’s lone postseason game—also against the Browns. The biggest football play of Rader’s college career came in 2016, when he made a behind-the-back catch to secure a walk-off win for Youngstown State in the FCS Championship Semifinal against Eastern Washington.
As for Dax Raymond, he originally signed with the Steelers last summer, but injuries have consistently held him back. In 2019, while with the Chicago Bears, he suffered a head injury in the team’s preseason finale and was subsequently waived injured. He was also waived injured by the Steelers last August, with tight end Kyle Markway taking his place on the roster.
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