Former Pittsburgh Steelers Wide Receiver Goes Off in UFL
Former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Deon Cain went off in the UFL on Friday night, continuing his strong run of play with the Birmingham Stallions.
On Friday in Detroit against the Michigan Panthers, Cain caught four passes for 84 yards and a 52-yard touchdown strike from quarterback Matt Corral.
Cain also returned two kickoffs for 61 yards, giving him 145 all-purpose yards in the 21-12 Birmingham victory.
In the Stallions’ opener against the D.C. Defenders, Cain had two catches for nine yards and five kickoff returns for 157 yards for another 162 all-purpose yards.
Through two games, Cain leads the UFL with 311 all-purpose yards. Second-place Jonathan Adams of the Memphis Showboats has 221, though only half the teams have played their second game.
Cain re-signed with the Stallions on Feb. 11 after three NFL stints during the 2024 season. The 28-year-old signed with the Bills just one day before the joint practice between Pittsburgh and Buffalo at Acrisure Stadium last August. He did not play in the preseason game between the Steelers and Bills that week, but did appear in Buffalo’s preseason finale against the Carolina Panthers on Aug. 24, when he caught all three targets for 28 yards.
Cain was released by the Bills in their final cut-down to 53 players on Aug. 30. He caught on with the Carolina Panthers, spending six weeks on their practice squad. He was cut by the Panthers on Oct. 15 without having appeared in a game. The Bills re-signed him to their practice squad on Oct. 31, but was again released on Dec. 3.
Cain spent the 2019 and 2020 seasons with the Steelers. A 6-foot-2, 202-pound Clemson alum, he was a sixth-round pick of the Indianapolis Colts in 2018. Cain spent a season and a half there before the Steelers signed him off the Indianapolis practice squad in 2019.
Cain played six games down the stretch run of that season with the Steelers, making three starts. He caught five passes for 72 yards. He returned to the Steelers in 2020, spending most of the season on the practice squad, but was elevated for the team’s Week 6 and Week 17 games.
Despite enduring through a number of transactions and three stints in spring football, that currently represents Cain’s last NFL regular-season action. The Steelers let Cain’s contract expire for 2021, and he bounced around the NFL in 2022 without appearing in a game.
Cain’s first foray into spring football came in 2023, when he played with the Birmingham Stallions, then in the USFL, and was named the USFL Championship Game MVP while leading the Stallions to a title.
He was with the Eagles for a second time in the 2023 offseason, but was cut coming out of camp and again played with Birmingham last spring, winning a title in the UFL, which was formed in 2024 out of a merger of the USFL and XFL.
Cain had his best spring-league numbers yet in 2024. He caught 33 passes for 436 yards and three touchdowns over 10 regular-season games with the Stallions, and added four catches for 25 yards in two playoff games.
He’s on pace to dominate those numbers so far in 2025.
