Barring something happening in the next few days, Pittsburgh Steelers tackle Kelvin Beachum will become an unrestricted free agent next week after spending the first four years in the league with the team that drafted him the seventh round of the 2012 NFL Draft out of SMU. Friday morning, Beachum was a guest on SiriusXM NFL Radio and he was asked how his negotiations are going with the Steelers.
“It’s been ongoing,” said Beachum. “I think there’s interest from both sides but at the end of the day it starts to get down to the business aspect and you have to let business people do what business people do. I see it like this, it’s a win-win situation for me no matter how it goes. I’m a 26-year-old African American who is negotiating a multimillion dollar contract and for me, coming from where I come from, that’s a blessing within itself.”
Beachum’s 2015 season was cut short by a left knee injury that required surgery and as you would expect, he was asked Friday how his rehab is coming along.
“I feel extremely well,” said Beachum. “I’m up and moving around, have started doing things that are football-orientated, which is a blessing. So I feel great, ready to see what God has for me in the next chapter of my life and just embracing it all right now.”
Beachum later admitted in the interview that he and Ramon Foster have been leaning on one another this offseason as he is also about to hit free agency.
“It’s a process that were both excited about and I can’t speak for him, but for me, it’s been great talking with somebody about this whole process,” said Beachum of Foster. “Especially somebody I played next to for a number of games that we went to battle with and we’ve given sacrifices up for and I know it’s going to pan out for him as well as it’s going to pan out for me.”
It certainly will be interesting to watch how these last few days play out for not only Beachum, but Foster as well. One would think the Steelers would like to re-sign at least one of them, if not both.
Even though he’s coming off of a serious knee injury, Beachum figures to get a lot of attention during the early portion of free agency and especially being as the Buffalo Bills placed the franchise tag on their left tackle, Cordy Glenn.
