Elandon Roberts was born to be a linebacker.
Don't think so?
Ask his father, Eli.
The youngest of Eli and Stephanie Roberts' children was always a bull in a China shop when it came to looking for contact.
"My friends were calling him Bobby Boucher," Eli Roberts said with a laugh, referencing Adam Sandler's character in the movie "The Waterboy." "Because he was like that. I don't know where that came from. It's just in him. I would tell him, 'OK, tone it down.' I'll give you a good example. When he was really young, he played flag football when he started. The coach came to me and said, 'Hey, I can't get Elandon to stop tackling.' So I said something to Elandon, and he said he could live with a penalty to make sure the runner doesn't get a touchdown. I'm like, 'Wow.'
"So then, they figured out a way for him to get to the runner's hip to get the flag without getting a penalty. He was so physical. When he would get to the flag, he would just run through the flag. And the coach would look at me. He would just go through the guy to get the flag."
It sounds very similar to what Roberts has done the past nine seasons in the NFL.
The 30-year-old was a key addition for the Steelers as a free agent in 2023 along with Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander in a revamped inside linebacker room.
But midseason injuries to both Holcomb and Alexander left Roberts as the last man standing of that group.
He wound up appearing in 16 games and starting 15 of them, leading the Steelers with 101 tackles to go along with 2.5 sacks, 10 tackles for a loss and six quarterback hits.
And by the end of the season, he was largely the glue that held the second level of the defense together, as the Steelers tried a number of different players next to him to help offset the injuries at the position.
Just don't tell him that.
"Personally, I just feel like that's our job," Roberts said of last season. "I didn't look at it like, 'I did this,' or 'I did that.' I just did what the team needed, what the coaches asked me to do as an individual to have a team goal. I'm never going to shy away from leadership. I'm never going to shy away from doing what's best for the team. I'm a team-first guy, no matter what that may look like.
"Last year was last year. I don't really look back on it. A lot of people may get stuck in the past. I look at what I can do to get better coming into this season to put another even better year together for this team."
Still, his play was much appreciated by head coach Mike Tomlin.
"He's a pro," Tomlin said of Roberts this offseason. "He's smart. He's a good teammate. He loves football. He likes to talk about it. He's a good communicator. And it's just good to have those skills, particularly at that position."
Tomlin has coveted Roberts and his skill set for some time.
In 2016 when Roberts was coming out of the University of Houston, Tomlin and then-GM Kevin Colbert met with Roberts and his parents for nearly an hour after his pro day, just talking to them about their desire to acquire the hard-hitting linebacker, who was considered a late-round prospect as a downhill thumper.
Unfortunately for the Steelers, after making their selection in the fourth round of offensive tackle Jerald Hawkins, they didn't have another pick until the next-to-last selection of the sixth round. By then, New England had taken Roberts six selections earlier and the Steelers settled for linebacker Travis Feeney instead.
"The conversation that we had, it was a great conversation with the two guys and we really enjoyed it," Eli Roberts said. "But Mike told me he was going to come and get Elandon if he's still there. We were getting ready to come. We go, 'OK, that's great, because Elandon has always been and still is a linebacker known for being very, very physical. And that's what Steelers linebackers are known as. So we were excited that Mike and the general manager were so interested. I was like, 'OK, we're going to be a Steeler. I'd better go get me some Steelers stuff.'
"What I really enjoyed the conversation was just them taking time out to talk with me and to talk with me about Elandon. But I know how the draft words, the needs of the teams and things like that."
It just wasn't meant to be at that time.
But Roberts kept that meeting with Tomlin in the back of his mind, deciding if he had another opportunity to play for the Steelers and Tomlin, he would take it.
"He was genuine," Roberts said of Tomlin ."It meant a lot for him to talk to us, not even just me, but my parents. Last year, when I got the opportunity to be a Steelers, they were like, 'It doesn't even matter about the money. You've got to be a Steeler.' But Pittsburgh made it make sense. It was a no-brainer. That's a legendary organization, and you're being led by Mike Tomlin, it was a no-brainer."
In between those years, however, were some big moments.
In his rookie season in 2016, the Patriots defeated the Steelers in the AFC Championship with Roberts recording two tackles in the game. He then had two more tackles in New England's come-from-behind win over the Falcons in the Super Bowl.
He had six tackles in the Super Bowl the next season in a loss to the Eagles, then notched one tackle in New England's 13-3 win over the Rams in the Super Bowl at the end of the 2018 season.
Three seasons, three Super Bowl appearances. Not bad for a former sixth-round draft pick.
Along the way, he also caught a touchdown pass from Tom Brady.
With the Patriots dealing with injuries at the fullback position, head coach Bill Belichick moved Roberts to fullback at times during the 2019 season.
Why not? After all, Roberts was always all about the contact.
But he showed he was more than just an extra blocker in the regular season finale against the Dolphins when he lined up in an offset-I behind Brady and headed to the right flat at the snap. Brady immediately tossed the ball out to Roberts and after beating a defender to the edge, he rambled 38 yards for a touchdown.
At Steelers OTAs this offseason, Roberts was regaling the team's quarterbacks about his touchdown prowess. They didn't believe him.
"I think the quarterbacks thought I was playing," Roberts said. "Tom threw me the ball and I caught it, too. They were like, 'Why you always lying?' I was like, 'I'm not lying, but whatever.'"
If they don't believe him, they can visit his home. He has the football, signed by Brady, on display.
"Yeah. It's in my man cave," Roberts said. "Tom signed it and everything."
It all makes sense. Roberts also has one career interception, that coming in 2021 while with the Dolphins, with whom he signed following the 2019 season. He returned that 85 yards for a touchdown.
When he gets the ball in his hands, he scores. It's a far cry different from his younger days, when he would get the ball and go looking for contact.
"Elandon was a great fullback in high school, but he was so physical," Eli Roberts said. "At fullback he would play linebacker, looking for contact. It didn't matter. When he was in high school, my brother would say, 'Why didn't he just get the ball and run?' He waited for contact and he would pick up and run but he was looking for the guy to come tackle him."
And he was tough.
That started at a young age.
Roberts loved playing football so much that he hid an injury from his parents so that they wouldn't find out and keep him from playing.
"As a young kid, he broke his finger outside playing," Eli Roberts said. "And we didn't know about it. He hid it from us. His mom and I actually found out about it after the season. I said 'Why didn't you tell us?' He said, 'Well, if I told you guys, you wouldn't have let me play in that game.' I was just like, 'Wow."
Roberts has always been very serious about the game.
"For a long time my wife did not understand him as far as when it came to football, because when he was in high school on Thursday nights, he would come home and after practice and go straight up to his room," Eli Roberts said. "He always did that in college. Now in the pros. He's just locked in and focused on the game. And it's like that until about two hours after the game is over, which is when he starts becoming Elandon, and he'll joke with you again. But he's really serious about the sport, about football and him being on that plan."
The Steelers appreciate that attitude.
As one of the more veteran players on the team, Roberts is the sage veteran of a position group that now includes the 27-year-old Holcomb, but also Patrick Queen, rookie Payton Wilson and Mark Robinson, among others. Queen, Wilson and Robinson are all just 24.
"I've had bad plays, horrible plays in my career that I can learn from," Roberts said. "I'm happy to share."
He's also happy to share the moments with his mom and dad. Because everything happened so quickly last season, Eli and Stephanie Roberts were unable to attend the Steelers training camp at Saint Vincent College.
But they plan to remedy that this year when the Steelers head to Latrobe later this month.
Eli Roberts can't wait to see Tomlin again and let him know how much that meeting outside the Houston pro day meant to him and his wife.
"You're talking about my baby boy," Eli Roberts said. "My wife thought it was awesome. You know? It helped us relax. It made us appreciate everything about the Steelers."
And now that their son is a member of the Steelers, they can't imagine him playing anywhere else.
"He was born to be a linebacker. This kid was born to be a Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker," Eli Roberts said. "And I say that because when I was coming up we're looking at Elandon coming up and we're looking at Pittsburgh and the way they play and their linebackers in the defense, it was just so physical. Like OK, this is Elandon. You'll watch and say, 'Don't go downhill here this time. Boom. He goes downhill. When he makes up his mind to go, he's gone.'
"That's a Steelers linebacker."
