The Pittsburgh Steelers set their initial 53-man roster for the 2023 season on Tuesday afternoon, and since then that group of players has been modified by one. While we could see yet another change or two to the team’s roster before they play the San Francisco 49ers in Week One, I feel comfortable enough at this point to start looking ahead at the team’s 2024 free agent situation.
Based on the Steelers 53-man roster after the reported signing of new CB Desmond King on Wednesday, the team currently has 18 players with expiring contracts at the end of the 2023 season.
Of those 18 players, 13 of them are now scheduled to become unrestricted free agents come March 2024. King is one of those players as he reportedly signed a one-year contract, likely a veteran benefit deal at that.
Six other players on that list of 18 scheduled unrestricted free agents – OLB Markus Golden, ILB Kwon Alexander, DE Armon Watts, CB Chandon Sullivan, WR Miles Boykin and QB Mason Rudolph – are also playing on one-year veteran benefit contracts. Only Boykin and Rudolph are carryovers back from the 2022 roster.
CB Levi Wallace, DT Montravius Adams, S Miles Killebrew, WR Gunner Olszewski, and DB Elijah Riley are all in the final years of the two-year contracts that they signed last year. Riley, however, wasn’t a permanent addition to last year’s roster until late last season.
As for CB James Pierre, who was not tendered this past offseason as a restricted free agent, he ultimately re-signed with the Steelers on a one-year deal after testing the market.
As for the four players now set to become restricted free agents in March 2024 – LS Christian Kuntz, RB Anthony McFarland Jr., ILB Chapelle Russell, and DE Renell Wren – only Kuntz is a carryover from the 2022 53-man roster. He was an exclusive rights free agent this past offseason and quickly signed his tender from the Steelers.
McFarland, Russell, and Wren all ended the 2022 season on the Steelers’ practice squad and all three were quickly re-signed to Reserve/Future contracts early in the offseason. It is worth noting that Russell and Wren are now both on the team’s Reserve/Injured list and won’t play in 2023.
That leaves OT Dylan Cook, who as of right now, is the team’s only scheduled exclusive rights free agent for 2024. He signed a one-year contract with the Steelers back in May.
So, how many of these free agents will ultimately be re-signed after the 2023 season? Maybe a few, but it’s obviously hard to project this far out. Players such as Kuntz, McFarland and Cook can all easily be retained next offseason with tenders. That said, the Steelers did not tender any of their restricted free agents this past offseason. Kuntz needs a solid 2023 season to earn his restricted tender before next offseason. Cook, should he last on the roster all season, will undoubtedly be exclusive tendered.
As for the lengthy list of scheduled unrestricted free agents, it’s a good bet that most of those players won’t be back in 2024. However, players such as King, Wallace, Golden, and Alexander could beat those odds if each plays well in 2023. Even so, none of the players on the unrestricted list should cost a lot should the Steelers ultimately decide to re-sign any of them.
In closing, count on this list changing by the end of the 2023 regular season. It figures to either shrink or grow due to players being cut and/or signed. We will revisit this list midway through the 2023 regular season and pass along an update and outlook.
