It sure is sounding more and more like the Pittsburgh Steelers are seriously considering re-signing unrestricted free agent tackle Alejandro Villanueva.
Villanueva, who has yet to get any known or reported heavy interest so far from other teams in free agency, might just have been asked by the Steelers to take his home in Pittsburgh off the market. At least that’s the rumor that Ed Bouchette of The Atlantic seems to be running with as of Monday morning.
“I haven’t written this because I haven’t got it confirmed,” Bouchette explained on 93.7 The Fan Monday morning. “It was told to me by one person that I have reason to believe knows it so I’m just going to throw this out, that he [Villanueva] supposedly had his house up for sale and was going to leave and the Steelers went to him and said, ‘eh, not so fast there’ and pulled the for sale sign down. Now, again, I just heard that from one person who has reason to know that. But, again, I wouldn’t write it because it’s not strong enough.”
Well, Bouchette wouldn’t write it but he sure did say it so I guess I will write it.
Are there any legs to this story whatsoever? If there are, one would think something would happen this week when it comes to the Steelers possibly re-signing Villanueva. They could probably get him back now for around $9 million and on a deal that includes four voidable years so as to keep his 2021 salary cap charge below $2.75 million.
On the heels of that, Colin Dunlap of 93.7 The Fan said after Bouchette’s interview that the listing for Villanueva’s house came down because it’s under agreement to be sold now. So, who really knows what at this point?
The Steelers re-signed tackle Zach Banner a few weeks ago and so he’d scheduled to start at one of the two spots in 2021. As for the other starting sport, that would likely go to Chukwuma Okorafor as of the time of this post. The Steelers are also expected to draft another young tackle this year as well and recently signed veteran Joe Haeg a little more than a week ago to serve as a backup.
We’ll see what happens with Villanueva this week, but the longer he remains unsigned, the more likely it is that he’ll either re-sign with the Steelers or just retire. I’m guessing we’ll find out a lot more by Friday.
