If you’ve followed the Pittsburgh Steelers closely for an extended amount of time you’re probably not surprised the least little bit as to how their offseason has transpired when it comes to free agency.
As usual, the Steelers took a very conservative, yet very calculated, approach to free agency that to date has resulted in three outside unrestricted free agents being signed in linebacker Jon Bostic, safety Morgan Burnett and safety Nat Berhe. Additionally, the Steelers re-signed several of their own free agents this offseason in running basks Fitzgerald Toussaint and Stevan Ridley in addition to wide receiver Justin Hunter and defensive tackle Daniel McCullers. All four of those players signed minimum salary benefit contracts that come with reduced salary cap charges to boot.
While one of the Steelers 2018 unrestricted free agents, tackle Chris Hubbard, quickly signed a lucrative contract with the Cleveland Browns at the start of the new league year, the team’s other unrestricted free agents, linebacker Sean Spence, outside linebacker Arthur Moats, wide receiver Eli Rogers, cornerback Greg Ducre and center Mike Matthews, all remain unsigned at the time of this post and that’s not very surprising. Of those five players, Moats is reportedly the only one to get any kind of attention from another team so far this offseason. While the Steelers might ultimately re-sign Rogers later on during the offseason, such a move will only happen after he fully recovers from his January knee surgery.
The Steelers released three veteran players just ahead of the new league year starting and two of them, cornerback William Gay and safety Robert Golden, have since signed one-year minimum salary benefit contracts with the New York Giants and Kansas City Chiefs, respectively. The third released player, safety Mike Mitchell, currently remains unsigned at the time of this post.
If you’re scoring at home, the Steelers aren’t expected to receive any compensatory draft picks next offseason due to what all has transpired this offseason.
