Tinley Park's Miles Boykin Catches On In Pittsburgh, Gets Fresh Start

TINLEY PARK, IL — Miles Boykin has acknowledged in the past that after they passed him up in the NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers were never among the former Providence Catholic football star’s favorite teams.

Now, Boykin has a new-found appreciation for the Steelers, who, after being counted as a heated rival for the former Baltimore Ravens wide receiver, have provided him with a new home. Boykin will begin the new NFL season with the Steelers after surviving final cuts in Pittsburgh and landing a roster spot with the team that once passed on him after he finished his college playing career at Notre Dame.

Boykin, who spent three years in Baltimore where he was relegated to a mostly special teams role last season, has caught on in Pittsburgh. Boykin is looking to find a niche in a Pittsburgh offense that is now guided by former Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky and approaches his new football home as a fresh start.

Boykin will see some time at special teams, but the Steelers believe that he can also make a difference at receiver, providing Pittsburgh with some depth at the position while showing that his playmaking ability can add to the Steelers’ offensive attack.

Pittsburgh opens the season against the defending AFC North Division champion Cincinnati Bengals. Boykin is one of six receivers who made the Steelers’ 53-man roster and is listed as a reserve on the Steelers’ depth chart, which was released on Tuesday.

“At the end of the day, I’m just so blessed to be playing football,” Boykin said over the summer, according to the Times of Northwest Indiana. “It doesn’t matter where I’m playing at, I’m just excited to play. Any chance I get to go out and play, it’s great because I love the game so much and it doesn’t matter where I’m at.”

Boykin, who was drafted in the second round of the 2019 Draft coming out of Notre Dame, has seven touchdown catches in his NFL career. He hopes to build on that in Pittsburgh, which decided to stick with Boykin at decision time when coach Mike Tomlin and the Steelers front office were making their final cuts last week.

Tomlin told reporters this week that the team didn't take a "cookie-cutter" approach to its final roster and that everyone who will begin the season with the team is there for a specific reason.

"Everybody is on our roster because they're deserving," Tomlin told reporters on Tuesday. "...We look at who's varsity and all the guys (at receiver) are."

Boykin has been with the Steelers since being waived by Baltimore last season in a move he told reporters in Pittsburgh he almost saw coming. But after three years in the league, Boykin understands how the business works and knew that his hit against the Ravens’ salary camp could be too much to keep him on the roster especially given his cutback of playing time at receiver.

Now, the team that he admitted to hating after they initially passed up, is giving him the opportunity to showcase the skillset that first attracted the Steelers to Boykin in the first place.

“I’m just excited to get out there and get a chance to be a playmaker here,” Boykin told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.