The Pittsburgh Steelers waived linebacker Shawn Lemon from their PUP list on Thursday and now I have more details on that transaction.
According to the official NFL transactions from Thursday, Lemon was waived with the “Failed Physical” designation. We assume that this was because of an Achilles injury that he suffered at some point during the offseason.
I asked former agent Joel Corry about Lemon’s status moving forward and he said he doesn’t think the linebacker will revert back to the team’s injured reserve list after clearing waivers as he wasn’t waived injured. However, Corry did say that injury protection claims can come into play as laid out in Article 45 of the CBA. That claim could potentially amount to to 50% of his Paragraph 5 Salary for the season following the season of injury.
Lemon signed a three-year futures contract with the Steelers during the offsesson and that included a $7500 signing bonus. Being as he was waived after June 1, the Steelers will have a dead money charge of $2500 in 2015 and another dead money charge of $5000 in 2016. Additionally, we’ll have to wait and see what happens with the claim and if indeed it will ultimately affect the salary cap.
UPDATE: Lemon cleared waivers Friday and has reverted to the Steelers Reserve PUP list.
This is interesting and by the sound of things, Lemon will now be forced to miss at least the first six weeks of the season being as he’s now on the Reserve PUP list. I can’t say I ever remember a player being waived from Active Pup and reverting to reserve PUP list but it does make sense.
