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Last week the Pittsburgh Steelers added defensive end Daniel Archibong to the team’s Reserve/Retired list, opening up a spot on the 90-man roster just a week or so before the start of training camp. Now it appears that the Steelers plan to replace Archibong with yet another defensive lineman.
According to Field Yates, NFL Insider for ESPN, the Steelers have held tryouts with five defensive linemen who played in the USFL this year, two of whom have previous NFL experience. The five linemen in question are: Doug Costin, Freedom Akinmoladun, Domenique Davis, Dondrea Tillman and Willie Yarbary.
As training camps inch closer, the Steelers tried out five players who played in the USFL this year:
* DT Doug Costin
* DE Freedom Akinmoladun
* DT Domenique Davis
* DT Dondrea Tillman
* DT Willie Yarbary
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Doug Costin Played for the Jaguars From 2020-21
Doug Costin, 24, is the most accomplished of the five, at least in terms of regular-season games played in the NFL. The former undrafted free agent out of Miami of Ohio appeared in 13 games for the Jacksonville Jaguars over the past two seasons, including the nine starts he made in 2020.
Listed as a defensive tackle by Pro Football Reference, he’s 6-foot-2 and 295 pounds and has recorded a total of 33 regular-season tackles, including 13 solo stops, three tackles for loss, two passes defensed, one quarterback hit and one fumble recovery. He played for the Birmingham Stallions this spring, where he was a teammate of former Steelers cornerback Brian Allen and former Steelers running back Tony Brooks-James.
The second-most accomplished player on the above-mentioned list is Freedom Akinmoladun, 26, who is 6-foot-3 and 284 pounds and played his college football at Nebraska. He has appeared in a total of five NFL regular-season games, four of which came with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2019-20 and one with the New York Jets in 2021. During those games he was credited with four tackles, three of which were solo stops. He was a second-round pick in this year’s USFL draft and played for the Philadelphia Stars.
2 of the 3 Others Are Former Division II Players
The other three tryout linemen have never appeared in an NFL regular-season game.
Domenique Davis — 6-foot-3 and 315 pounds — had 24 tackles and four sacks while playing defensive tackle for the Houston Gamblers. He played collegiately at UNC-Pembroke, a Division II program.
Dondrea Tillman had 20 tackles and two sacks as a defensive end for the Birmingham Stallions, having played for the IUP Red Hawks, another Division II school.
Last but not least, there’s Willie Yarbary, 26, also from the Stallions, who had 15 tackles and four sacks for Birmingham in 2022. He played his college football at Wake Forest between 2015-18. The Augusta, Ga. native appeared in 49 career games for the Demon Deacons, during which time he was credited with 116 total tackles, including 65 solo stops, 21.5 tackles for loss and 12 sacks.
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Eric Green’s Son Drafted by the Washington Nationals
In other recent news, Elijah Green, the 18-year-old son of former Steelers first-round pick Eric Green was selected No. 5 overall by the Washington Nationals in the 2022 Major League Baseball amateur draft. Green played tight end for the Steelers for five years between 1990-94, earning Pro Bowl honors during his last two seasons in Pittsburgh. His son is a right-handed outfielder out of IMG Academy in Florida.
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Steelers Work Out Former Jaguars Defensive Tackle, 4 Other D-Linemen