The Pittsburgh Steelers could still use a veteran strong safety on their roster and ahead of the 2022 NFL draft getting underway. For now, however, it seems as though the Steelers will wait out the market at that position a bit longer. Additionally, it sounds like the Steelers are open to re-signing safety Terrell Edmunds for the right price. At least that’s what Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting.
“The Steelers would consider re-signing Edmunds, but only if he doesn’t get a substantial offer in free agency. They are not going to chase him with contract offers,” Dulac reported on Monday from Florida.
As of right now, the free agent safety market is very thin, with veteran Tyrann Mathieu seemingly being the top unsigned unrestricted free agent at that position at this point. Edmunds is probably one of the top two or three strong safeties still unsigned, as well.
Dulac wrote on Monday that he doesn’t see Mathieu landing with the Steelers this offseason.
“Despite wishful thinking on the part of the public, they are not in financial position to sign Tyrann Mathieu because of the large extension they are prepared to give free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, according to sources,” Dulac wrote.
Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert strongly hinted on Sunday that the team isn’t likely to sign Mathieu.
“Our preference is always to add players coming off of their first contract or as close to their first contract as they can be,” Colbert said on Sunday during his media session.
Colbert did, however, hint on Sunday that the team could still add a strong safety with experience moving forward into free agency.
“But the one place where we don’t have an established starter is at that strong safety, so we’ll continue to look at that,” Colbert said on Sunday.
For Edmunds to return to Pittsburgh this offseason, one would think it would need to be on a very cheap one or two-year deal. The Steelers just gave out a couple of two-year, $8 million contracts to cornerbacks Ahkello Witherspoon and Levi Wallace, so that’s probably the most they would be willing to pay Edmunds to re-sign. For all we know, they might value Edmunds even lower than $4 million per season.
Even if the Steelers do wind up signing an experienced strong safety on the cheap in the coming days or weeks, it probably wouldn’t prevent them from drafting another one this year, and possibly even in the early rounds, at that.
