Former Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker Ola Adeniyi recently signed a one-year contract with the Tennessee Titans after not being restricted tendered by the team he’s been with the last few seasons. Additionally, Adeniyi’s signing came just a few days after his mentor and former Steelers teammate outside linebacker Bud Dupree signed a five-year, $82.5 million contract with the Titans as well. With Adeniyi now in Tennessee, he’s since made it known that is excited to join Dupree in playing for the Titans.
“I can’t wait to get with my boy Bud,” Adeniyi said, according to Michael Hogan, who covers the Titans for Sports Illustrated. “Shout out to Bud. I learned a lot from him. I can’t wait to get with him again. That’s my dog.”
Adeniyi went on to add that when he and his mentor Dupree were both together on the Steelers that their lockers were next to each other. He also explained how Dupree has mentored him over the course of the last few seasons.
“When I came into the league, I was overweight,” Adeniyi said. “… I got to talk to him on a daily basis, man. Him, also having a struggle in his rookie year, he had advice for me. He was just an OG (original gangster) to me. Just talking about how to succeed in the league and how to make a living. Bud is probably one of the smartest guys I know financially. Learning things like that on the field and off the field from him, it was amazing.”
A former undrafted free agent out of Toledo, Adeniyi made his biggest mark with the Steelers the last two seasons on special teams. He played a career high 144 defensive snaps in 2020 in the 15 regular season games that he dressed for. He also logged another 283 snaps during the season on special teams.
Defensively during the regular season, Adeniyi registered just seven total tackles with one resulting in lost yardage. He had two pass rushing hurries in 2020 with one more coming in the team’s lone playoff game. As a core special teams member throughout the 2020 regular season, Adeniyi was credited with eight total tackles and a forced fumble. He missed one regular season game due to a shoulder injury.
Overall, Adeniyi didn’t play much on defense for the Steelers outside of preseason games during his career in Pittsburgh and that’s likely why the team chose not to give him a restricted free agent tender prior to the start of the new league year in March. That resulted in Adeniyi becoming a free agent on March 17.
It will now be interesting to see if Adeniyi can ultimately make the Titans 53-man roster this year as a backup and special teams contributor. In the meantime, however, you can probably count on Adeniyi and Dupree to continue to spend quite a bit of time together now that they are both members of the Titans.
The Steelers will play the Titans at Heinz Field during the 2021 regular season. The 2021 NFL schedule release is expected to be in mid-May this year.
