Steelers Sign 2019 Draft Pick, DL Isaiah Buggs

The Pittsburgh Steelers have now signed their first member of their 2019 draft class and it’s defensive lineman Isaiah Buggs, the second of the team’s three third-round selections this year.

Buggs, who played his last two years of college football at Alabama after previously playing two seasons at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, was the 192nd overall selection in this year’s draft.

At this year’s scouting combine, Buggs measured in at 6031, 306-pounds with 31 1/4-inch arms and 9 1/4-inch hands. He ran the 40-yard dash in 5.15-seconds, did 20 reps on the bench, and had a vertical jump of 24.5-inches to go along with an 8’00” broad jump. In his two seasons at Alabama, Buggs registered 102 total tackles of which 17.5 of them resulted in lost yardage. 11 of those were sacks and he had two forced fumbles and 3 passes defensed in 29 games played in of which he started 28 of them. Buggs played up and down the defensive line at Alabama and even some over the center.

“We drafted Isaiah Buggs from Alabama, defensive tackle, and defensive end. Very explosive guy, he can get to the passer,” Steelers defensive line coach Karl Dunbar said after the selection of the Alabama product was made. “I have the privilege of recruiting him out of Junior College to get him to Alabama and coaching him. We were surprised he was still on the board in the sixth round. We jumped on the opportunity to fill in other needs early in the draft.”

According to estimates by Over the Cap ahead of this year’s draft, Buggs’ four-year contract that he signed on Tuesday is expected to total out at around $2,688,644 and include a signing bonus of roughly $168,644. His 2019 salary cap charge is expected to be around $537,161, according to those estimated numbers.

As soon as Buggs’ contract is officially filed with the NFLPA, we’ll pass along the exact numbers to you. Several more members of the Steelers 2019 draft class are expected to sign their rookie contracts by end of this coming weekend as that’s when the team’s annual rookie mini camp is scheduled to take place.