The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2021 season is over, already eliminated from the postseason after suffering a 42-21 loss at the hands of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. They just barely made the postseason with a 9-7-1 record and a little help from their friends.
This is an offseason of major change, with the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger, the possible retirement of general manager Kevin Colbert, and the decisions about the futures of many important players to be made, such as Joe Haden, Stephon Tuitt, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and others—some already decided, some not.
Aside from exploring their options at the quarterback position, the top global priority, once again, figures to be addressing the offensive line, which they did not do quite adequately enough a year ago. Dan Moore Jr. looks like he may have a future as a full-time starter, but Kendrick Green was clearly not ready. Chukwuma Okorafor was re-signed, but Trai Turner was not. James Daniels and Mason Cole were added in free agency.
These are the sorts of topics among many others that we have been exploring on a daily basis and will continue to do so. Football has become a year-round pastime and there is always a question to be asked. There is rarely a concrete answer, but this is your venue for exploring the topics we present through all their uncertainty.
Question: Would the Steelers still be open to drafting a safety high in the draft even after re-signing Terrell Edmunds?
For as much attention as the Steelers have paid to the quarterback position, they have been similar interested in the position of safety, exploring multiple avenues to fill out their roster, even if, thus far, they have ultimately only settled on re-signing their own free agent.
But aside from having contact with other notable outside free agents, the team has also done some significant work at exploring the draft class safeties, even some potential first-round options. While they have Terrell Edmunds back in the fold, he was only signed to a one-year, $2.5 million contract.
So what does this mean, not only for the 2022 NFL Draft, but also for 2023 and beyond? Do they still see Edmunds as a potential long-term option, even though they only brought him back on a one-year contract, which is not exactly their normal operating procedure when dealing with their own free-agent starters?
When the Steelers drafted Edmunds in the first round, they did so after having signed veteran free agent Morgan Burnett to a four-year, $20 million contract to come in and start, as a short-term solution. Is Edmunds now the short-term solution, the band-aid as they look for their next starting strong safety this weekend? Or does Edmunds’ return buy them another year at least, with the opportunity to revisit the problem then?
