The Pittsburgh Steelers’ season came to an end against the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday night, pushing the focus from the postseason to the offseason. One that’ll look much different than others with the team making big decisio0ns that will shape its future. That includes a long list of pending free agents the team will have to try to re-sign or allow to hit the open market.
Here are names on the roster currently expecting to see their contracts expire:
QB Ben Roethlisberger
CB Joe Haden
WR JuJu Smith-Schuster
TE Eric Ebron
CB Ahkello Witherspoon
OG Trai Turner
S Terrell Edmunds
WR James Washington
S Miles Killebrew
QB Joshua Dobbs
WR Ray-Ray McCloud
EDGE Taco Charlton
OL B.J. Finney
CB Arthur Maulet
DL Montravius Adams
OT Chukwuma Okorafor
RB Kalen Ballage
LB Robert Spillane (RFA)
QB Dwayne Haskins (RFA)
LB Marcus Allen (RFA)
OL J.C. Hassenauer (EFRA)
LS Christian Kuntz (ERFA)
DL Demarcus Christmas (ERFA)
The full expectation is that Ben Roethlisberger will retire at the conclusion of the season. Spillane, Haskins, and Allen are all restricted free agents, making them easily retainable should Pittsburgh decide to tender them. Hassenauer and Kuntz are exclusive rights free agents, and thus can be tendered as well. As for Christmas, he currently resides on the injured reserve list as an exclusive rights free agent.
As for the rest of the names listed, they will look to test free agency this spring. Pittsburgh has been known for retaining their own free agents before looking outside, meaning that several of the names above can be expected to come back next season. However, some of these names are more likely to be retained than others.
Given the names listed above, how would you personally rank the ten names that are most likely to be re-signed this offseason? #1 being the most likely to be re-signed and #10 being farther down the list? What is your reasoning for your own personal ranking? Please comment below your personal top ten ranking and share your thoughts for others to see and engage in. Again, there are no wrong answers, as this experiment is to gauge where Steelers Nation is at in terms of Pittsburgh’s likelihood, or lack thereof, of bringing back some of the players on their current roster. Thanks again for reading!
