With their 2019 preseason now over and done with, the Pittsburgh Steelers have a little more than week left before they open their regular season on the road against the New England Patriots, That means they also have a little more than a week remaining to get cornerback Joe Haden signed to a contract extension and it sounds like there’s a good chance that that will ultimately happen.
“What I can say is we would love to see Joe Haden finish his career with the Steelers,” general manager Kevin Colbert told Bob Pompeani of KDKA-TV during an interview ahead if the team’s Thursday night preseason finale against the Carolina Panthers. “We still got some time to maybe try to work something out, but I think Joe would love to finish his career here as well. So usually when both sides have the same agenda and the same purpose it usually will get done. So hopefully we can get that taken care of.”
Haden said this past week that he’s still optimistic that he’ll ultimately sign a contract extension with the Steelers prior to the team’s regular season opener against the Patriots.
“Man, we’re still working, we’re still working,” Haden said on Tuesday, according to 93.7 The Fan. “It’s been a long process but I’m still optimistic, still hoping that everything goes down. But time is ticking so we’ll see. We’ve got a couple of days; we’ll figure it out.”
During that same Tuesday media session, Haden, who didn’t play any during the recently concluded preseason due to an ankle injury he suffered during a training camp practice, announced that he expects to play against the Patriots in Week 1.
The Steelers have a longstanding self-imposed deadline of the team’s Week 1 game to get new contracts done with players so if Haden doesn’t sign an extension prior to the team’s opener against the Patriots getting underway, he’ll need to wait until after the season for talks to continue. Haden is now in the final year of his current contract with the Steelers and thus scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in March if he doesn’t sign an extension prior to then.
At this point, it will be a huge shock if Haden doesn’t sign an extension by the time the team leaves Pittsburgh tom play the Patriots.
