UDFA's.....who's going to stick?

Devaunte Sigler was a brick mason, now he's a Steeler

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  Jeremy FowlerESPN Staff Writer

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• The Pittsburgh Steelers kicked off rookie minicamp on a sunny May day, but when you've laid brick under the smoldering Alabama sun, this weather is breezy.

"It gets hot," said Devaunte Sigler, a defensive tackle from Jacksonville State trying to make the Steelers' roster as an undrafted free agent. "A man has to earn every day out there."

A family member helped set him up as a brick mason while he waited for his next football opportunity, which Jacksonville State provided.

So, Sigler, a Mobile, Alabama, native, worked from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. It was decent money, he said, enough to help with expenses while he lived at home.

The job lasted about five weeks. JSU called. He could go back to football. And he was relieved. Bringing a lunch and wearing the hard hat every day was a grind. Plus, the shoulders and back start to give out. Those are commodities for a football player.

"It was very humbling," Sigler said. "Coming from a D-1 school to have to be home and work, I had to learn to be part of a solution."

Sigler has traded the hard hat for a Steelers helmet. Instead of a 7-to-3er, he's a 300-pound All-Ohio Valley Conference recipient, and one of the 10 undrafted free agents signed by Pittsburgh after the draft. His daughter, Essence, is his motivation to make the 53-man roster.

"Things are a whole lot different -- I’m living my dream," Sigler said. "Now you have to appreciate what you have."

 

Idk who will make it or not. I honestly don't know all the udfa's and they wI'll change between now and camp. The best bet would be at positions that we are thin at.

 

well then LG isn't one of them.

 

I looked at the UDFA list and can honestly say I hadn't heard of the majority of them... and I thought I dove into the draft pretty deep. There were a lot of "bigger" names out there available and I didn't see any signed. I thought Vernon Adams may have been one, but then I saw he had some legal troubles which came out after the draft. Just goes to show how much you really know, which is squat.

I did like the safety they got earlier this year out of Liberty - Hagen. I'll keep my eye out for him in camp, etc.

 

Any depth we can build in the linebacker corps and secondary is a plus for us.

 

I say Maxey has a shot, depends on Walton's progress.

 

I think Maxey has a hell of a shot.

 

McCord

 

I like Newberry.
Very raw but strong and hustles.