Steely McBeam
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- Mar 20, 2019
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Ryan Switzer is entering his third season and already he has played for three teams. The receiver hopes he has found a home in Pittsburgh after a brief stop in Dallas and an even more brief stint in Oakland.
The Cowboys drafted Switzer in the fourth round in 2017. Dallas used him primarily as a return specialist, with Switzer seeing only 92 offensive snaps and catching but six passes for 41 yards as a rookie.
The Cowboys shipped him to Oakland before last offseason, reuniting him with special teams coach Rich Bisaccia. Switzer, though, lasted only four months with the Raiders before they dealt him to the Steelers the week of the final preseason game.
Despite his late arrival to Pittsburgh, Switzer caught 36 passes for 253 yards and a touchdown, while also returning punts and kickoffs last season.
“I didn’t surprise myself, but I am sure I surprised others,” Switzer said, via Teresa Varley of the team website. “There was a stigma that was created before I got here that I was just a return guy. It was hard for me because I spent four years in college doing so many things on the offensive side of the ball. A new environment can be good for everybody. To be around an organization that believed in me, a coaching staff that believed in me, and players that believed in me. That was the biggest thing. They allowed me to spread my wings, be who I am.
“I always knew how to play the receiver position. I think that got lost last year because of a stigma that was they put on me elsewhere as being just a return specialist guy. The Steelers who evaluated me coming out of the draft, they knew the production I had in college. For them to trust that, even though I wasn’t used like that in Dallas, meant a lot. The first week I was here coach [Mike] Tomlin made sure I knew that I wasn’t just here to be a return guy. Throughout the year I grew because of the guys that were around me, the guys I was able to watch. Then I grew because of Ben [Roethlisberger]. He took time with me individually to make sure I was on the same page with him. He took the time to make sure we knew about each other, learned about other, made sure I knew what he wanted, and he knew how I saw things.”
With a full offseason with the Steelers, Switzer expects to produce even more in 2019.