Steelers' Elandon Roberts Ghosted By AFC North Rival Browns During Draft; Smashed Joe Thomas For Revenge

Pittsburgh Steelers inside linebacker, Elandon Roberts appears to be off to a solid start in his first year in black and gold. He has nine solo tackles and always seems to be causing disruptions and pressure for the opposing offense. After the first three games of the 2023 season, Pro Football Focus has him graded at a 73.8.

Roberts spent most of his eight-year career playing for the New England Patriots, the team that drafted him. During his time there, he played in three Super Bowls, winning two. It is fair to say that playing for such a winning franchise and under a legendary coach like Bill Belichick, helped him develop better skills. While Roberts says he is now grateful to have played for New England, when he was initially going through the draft process, he was frustrated that one particular AFC North team ghosted him. 

A native of Texas, Roberts traveled to the East Coast to play for Morgan State, a historically black college (HBCU) in Baltimore, Maryland. He went there knowing he needed a leg up to get into a bigger school with a bigger program. He had a successful freshman year, finishing with 107 tackles. 

As he planned, his outstanding performance got him the attention of the University of Houston, where he transferred for his sophomore season. Each season in Houston, Roberts showed improvement. He went from playing as a backup to being team captain by his senior year. His senior season, he had 142 total tackles, which ranked him fourth in the nation.

Roberts announced he was planning to go out for the NFL Draft in 2016. He impressed the scouts at Houston's pro day, as well as during the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl. He said he was expected to go in the sixth round, although some thought he might go as early as the fourth. Roberts said he knew he wouldn't go on day one, but was still anxious to get that phone call. When one finally came, he was relieved, but then the team did not follow through on their word.   

Steelers' Elandon Roberts Says He Got Burned By This AFC North Rival

Recently Roberts appeared on Arthur Moats' podcast, The Arthur Moats Experience. Moats played linebacker for the Steelers for several seasons in the mid-2010s. Now he co-hosts his Steelers-centric show with his friend Deke. Moats and Deke asked Roberts about his draft experience. 

He told listeners that he knew he was dropping a bit in the draft. While he did not expect to go on day one, he had people telling him they thought he would go late on day two. This had him anticipating a call sometime during that second day and when one didn't come, he was getting frustrated. Then finally the phone rang and he got the call he had been waiting on.  

"The morning of the third day, I get a call. Who was it? Cleveland. Cleveland called me like, 'Yeah man, as soon as we start the draft, don't worry, we got you.' I was like, 'Alright, I'll be in Cleveland.' I'm waiting, phone never rung."

The Cleveland Browns called Roberts and told him they planned to select him with their third-round pick. However, their pick came and went, they not only did not select him, they did not even call to let him know they were going in a different direction. Roberts admits that he felt jilted by them.  

Roberts ultimately was selected in the sixth round by the Patriots. He said he knew he had "made it" when he heard Belichick on the phone. However, that wait from the third round to the sixth round seemed to take forever. While that was nearly a decade ago, he said he uses that outrage as fuel, especially during that rookie season. 

"I'm telling you when we played against Cleveland, and I was a rookie, I hit Joe Thomas so hard, and it didn't even have nothing to do with him. I was hot. They didn't even have to call me."

That fuel has certainly worked and not just against Joe Thomas. Now in his eighth season, Roberts has played in 110 games, starting 79 of them. He has had one interception for a touchdown, four forced fumbles, 11 sacks, 470 combined tackles, and 26 quarterback hits. While he says he believes things have worked the way they are meant to work for him, he does find motivation in being overlooked by so many teams.  

"I'm not gonna lie, to this day, I still go back and I look at all the linebackers that got taken before me. It's not many still left. It wasn't for me to go early, I went where I should have been."

Roberts was the seventh inside linebacker selected in 2016. The first inside linebacker selected that year was Reggie Ragland whose career kind of petered out after he helped the Kansas City Chiefs win the Super Bowl in 2019. Also in his draft class was former Steelers linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski who was released by Pittsburgh during the 2023 roster cuts. 

The Browns certainly lost out on a tremendous player by letting Roberts go. Their loss was New England's gain. Of the entire inside linebacker group from his draft class, Roberts has been among the most successful and is certainly one of the few still playing eight years in. He said that he is still working on his "dark grind" and knows he has a lot of football left in him and he is thrilled to be doing it with a team he always wanted to join.