The Pittsburgh Steelers issued a few second-round restricted tenders back in March to tackle Matt Feiler and cornerback Mike Hilton and to date, neither have signed them. That figures to change very soon, however.
According to Dan Graziano of ESPN, Feiler is signing his second-round restricted free-agent tender. The amount of that tender for 2020 is $3.259 million.
It’s not that big of deal that Feiler and Hilton have yet to sign their restricted tenders. Even so, it’s worth pointing out that June 15 is the deadline for teams to withdraw qualifying offers to Restricted Free Agents and still retain exclusive negotiating rights by substituting “June 15 Tender” of one-year contract at 110 percent of the player’s prior-year Paragraph 5 Salary (with all other terms of his prior-year contract carried forward unchanged).
It’s not that the Steelers would likely withdraw their standing tenders to Feiler or Hilton in the next few days should either decide to hold off signing it longer, but it would be an option just the same.
It’s very unlikely that both Feiler and Hilton will get contract extensions later this offseason and neither has much leverage when it comes to that by not signing their current tenders.
A year ago, Hilton received an exclusive rights free agent tender for the minimum and held off signing it until he arrived for the start of training camp.
We’ll watch the NFL’s official transaction report the next few days to make sure that Feiler is listed as signing his restricted tender. Additionally, we’ll now be on the lookout to see if Hilton signs his as well in the next few days.
Currently, Feiler and Hilton are both slated to become unrestricted free agents at the start of the 2021 NFL league year in March.
