Steelers Host Massive Ex-Browns Nose Tackle for Visit
The Pittsburgh Steelers hosted former Cleveland Browns nose tackle Siaki Ika on a free agent visit on Wednesday, according to a report by Aaron Wilson of KPRC-TV in Houston.
Ika, 24, was the Browns’ third-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft out of Baylor. The 6-foot-3, 335-pound defensive lineman played in four games for the Browns as a rookie last year, playing in 100 snaps without recording a statistic.
He was waived from the team this August and placed on the practice squad before being released on Oct. 15. The Philadelphia Eagles then signed him to their practice squad on Oct. 23 and cut him on Nov. 20.
Both Philadelphia and Cleveland play base 4-3 defenses, where they don’t regularly use a nose tackle outside of goal-line situations. He could be a better fit in Pittsburgh, where the Steelers have not had a true backup to Keeanu Benton on the 53-man roster with Montravius Adams on the IR.
The Steelers do have two nose tackles on their practices squad, Breiden Fehoko and Domenique Davis.
Ika, a Utah native of Tongan descent, attended LSU for two years before transferring to Baylor in 2021. With the Bears, he had a breakout junior season in 2021, recording 24 tackles, six tackles for loss, four sacks and a pass breakup in 13 games, putting him on NFL Draft radars.
Ika’s numbers weren’t as good as a senior posting 24 tackles, two tackles for loss and two passes defended in 2022. The massive nose tackle did not perform well in pre-draft testing. He ran a comically slow 5.39-second 40-yard dash and did not participate in the bench press.
His stock slid from a borderline first-round draft pick to a third-rounder, and he still went below his NFL Mock Draft Database projection when the Browns took him at pick No. 98.
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