First bit of post-tampering period free agency news about the Pittsburgh Steelers. According to a tweet from the Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac the team is primarily interested in re-signing four players: CBs Mike Hilton and Cam Sutton, OT Matt Feiler, and NT Tyson Alualu.
Of course, as Dulac writes, wanting to and actually doing it are two different things. It’s highly unlikely the Steelers are able to keep all four of those names, especially Hilton and Sutton. It is possible they could retain three, however, choosing between Hilton and Sutton (Sutton being the cheaper option) while re-signing Feiler and Alualu.
If re-signed, Feiler would likely kick out to right tackle where he started and played some of his best football in 2018 and 2019. Alualu found the fountain of youth last season as he moved to nose tackle. Only a mid-season MCL sprain slowed him down.
Not mentioned on that list are guys like OLB Bud Dupree, OT Alejandro Villanueva, and WR JuJu Smith-Schuster. Dupree is expected to have a white-hot market while Villanueva and Smith-Schuster are probably pricing themselves out of the city. Dulac also failed to mention Zach Banner’s name.
The tampering period opened at noon today, allowing any team to negotiate with pending free agents. We should soon know the fate of those four players and the rest of the Steelers’ free agents.
