Steelers to Host Former WVU Player on Tryout

The Steelers will host former Dolphins and XFL long snapper Rex Sunahara on a tryout, the official XFL account announced.

Sunahara played for West Virginia in college and was with the San Antonio Brahmas during his XFL stint this past season. In fact, this is not even Sunahara’s first stint with the Steelers. Back in 2021, the team signed Sunahara to a futures contract following the season.

Sunahara spent time on the team’s practice squad as well in December of 2021. In May of 2022, Pittsburgh waived Sunahara. Before that time coming out of college, Sunahara spent time with the Miami Dolphins in 2020 and 2021.

The 6-foot-6, 242-pound Sunahara was a basketball player at Rhode Island before transferring to West Virginia to become a long snapper. He was the team’s primary long snapper in 2018 and 2019. He would be named to the NFLPA Game during the 2020 NFL Draft process and was a semifinalist for the Mannelly Award that year. 

As it stands right now, the Steelers do not have another long snapper other than Christian Kuntz on the team. They tried out Antonio Ortiz, another XFL long snapper, last week, but he did not end up getting a contract from Pittsburgh. Sunahara could be the competition brought in to challenge Kuntz for an offseason competition.