The Pittsburgh Steelers had their 2024 season end Saturday night as a result of them losing to the Baltimore Ravens in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. With that 28-14 loss now behind us, we can take a first look at the players set to be free agents during the offseason.
In total, the Steelers have 24 players set to be free agents in some capacity. Twenty-one of the 24 players are scheduled to become unrestricted free agents during the offseason. One of the 24 players, RB Jaylen Warren, is set to become a restricted free agent. Two other players, OLB Jeremiah Moon and C Ryan McCollum, are scheduled to become exclusive rights free agents.
When it comes to the lengthy list of players scheduled to become unrestricted free agents, three of them are quarterbacks in Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, and Kyle Allen. Those three players, and that position group, will have quite a bit of discussion surrounding them in the coming days and weeks, especially with the team not currently having any other quarterback under contract for the 2025 season.
The Steelers will probably want to figure out quickly if they want any or all of the three quarterbacks back in 2025 and then attempt to sign the ones they want to retain ahead of the new league starting in March.
Most of the other non-quarterbacks set to become unrestricted free agents during the offseason won’t require much discussion at all. Most of them will likely be allowed to ride off into the sunset, especially if they are not willing to re-sign for the league minimum associated with their credited seasons.
Players such as T Dan Moore Jr., G James Daniels, and RB Najee Harris are all likely to test unrestricted free agency during the offseason. In all likelihood, all three will ultimately sign with new teams.
ILB Elandon Roberts is a player the team will likely try to re-sign before free agency gets underway. He’s already said he would like to return in 2025. Even so, a re-signing of Roberts will likely need to be at a bargain price.
WR Mike Williams will see his contract void in February and then he’ll become an unrestricted free agent in March. While the Steelers might want to ultimately re-sign him, like Roberts, it would likely require him to agree to an extremely team-friendly deal. Maybe the same goes for CB Donte Jackson as well. He can probably forget about matching what he earned in 2024 with the Steelers.
To reiterate, there’s not much to discuss when it comes to most of the players scheduled to become unrestricted free agents during the offseason.
As for Warren, the lone player scheduled to become a restricted free agent, expect the Steelers to tender him at a second-round level prior to the start of the new league year in March if they can’t work out a contract extension with him prior to then. That amount is projected to be right around $5.217 million. We won’t know the exact amount for several weeks.
As for Moon and McCollum, the two exclusive rights free agents, if the Steelers want to retain one or both, they can do so by merely tendering one-year contracts for the minimum amount associated with each’s credited seasons and they must accept those offers.
In closing, yes, the list of players set to become free agents is long this offseason. Even so, most of the players on that list won’t be back in 2025.
In the coming weeks, I will have a more thorough breakdown of each player on this free agent list as part of my annual primer series.
