Veteran edge rusher Markus Golden signed on with the Steelers recently and he’s ticketed for a different role in Pittsburgh than he’s played for most of his career.
The Steelers already had T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith on hand, which means Golden will not be at the top of the depth chart this season. On Tuesday, Golden said he did not receive any assurances about how much he is going to play before agreeing to the deal with the Steelers and that he will “be ready to come in and hunt” on any snaps that he does play this fall.
“I don’t need all that,” Golden said, via Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I know how football is. You can sit here and tell somebody anything. At the end of the day, I know how football is. Anything can happen. What I’m going to do is go hard every day, come to work every day, learn from these guys. When the time comes, whether I play one play or if I play 30 plays, I’m going to go hard on all those plays.”
The Steelers heard similar sentiments from Melvin Ingram a couple of years ago, but Ingram eventually balked about being a part-timer and the Steelers wound up trading him to the Chiefs at midseason. They’ll be hoping that Golden proves truer to his word as well as capable of making an impact as a rotational player.
