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ARTICLE
Steelers
Add 22 Free Agents; Allocate 15 to NFL Europe League PITTSBURGH¯ The Steelers added 22 first-
and second-year free agents to their roster and allocated 15 of the players to
play in the NFL Europe League. The players
added were: fullbacks Darryl Kennedy and Travis Wilson; quarterback Jeff Krohn;
wide receivers Chris Collins, Sam Simmons and Walter Young; tight end John
Frieser; centers Ben Claxton and Joe Iorio; offensive guard Lenny Vandermade;
offensive tackles Josh Burr and Ulish Booker; safety Janssen Patten; cornerback
Vontez Duff; linebackers Matt Farrior, Lewis Moore and Dedrick Roper; defensive
end Brandon Calton; defensive tackles Grant Bowman, Bob Dzvonick and Eric
Taylor; and punter Mike Barr. All players
except Bowman, Burr, Duff, Iorio, Roper, Taylor and Young will be allocated to
NFL Europe. Bowman, Duff, Roper,
Taylor, Young, Collins and Vandermade each spent part or all of the 2004 season
on the Steelers practice squad.
Practice squad players automatically become free agents immediately
following the end of a team’s season.
Burr, who originally signed with the team as an undrafted free agent in
2002 and spent most of the 2002-2003 campaigns on the team’s practice squad and
spent the entire 2004 season on the NFL Europe reserved/injured
list. Farrior, a
first-year player, is the younger brother of Steelers All-Pro inside linebacker
James Farrior. Barr, Kennedy and
Patten were in training camp with the Steelers in 2004, but were released prior
to the regular season. Iorio
attended Penn State and was on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ practice squad in
2004. Moore, who played at the
University of Pittsburgh, was in camp with the Chicago Bears and New York Giants
in 2004. Calton signed with the
Steelers as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2004.
Simmons
played in 11 games with the Miami Dolphins in 2003, returning three kickoffs for
64 yards (21.3 avg.) and eight punts for 100 yards (12.5 avg.). He was on Miami’s practice squad in 2002
and was released by the Dolphins during the 2004
preseason. |
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