Steelers Free Agent Analysis: James Daniels
Position: Offensive Guard
Experience: 7 Years (3 with Steelers)
Free Agent Status: Unrestricted
2024 Salary Cap Hit: $11,166,668
2024 Season Breakdown:
Steelers RG James Daniels certainly didn’t have the contract year he hoped for. It started with the team telling him they had no plans to extend him. By extension, that also likely implied they had no plans to re-sign him in 2025. To make matters dramatically worse, he tore his Achilles in the fourth game of the season.
The Steelers signed James Daniels in free agency in 2022. He was their premiere signing that year, earning a three-year contract worth $26.5 million. At the time, it was the largest contract the Steelers had ever given out to an outside unrestricted free agent. Since then, Patrick Queen has broken that record by a considerable margin.
Daniels didn’t miss a snap in his first season with the Steelers but missed two in 2023. Last season, he missed 13 games after tearing his Achilles. This is the second major injury of his career, missing all but five games in 2020 with a torn pectoral.
The fact that Daniels is coming off an injury will obviously affect his market, but perhaps not enough for the Steelers to re-enter the picture. He was still a quality starter and will be again when he is fully healed. Teams might be cautious and may even want to wait until later in the offseason. That would screw the Steelers if he ended up signing outside of the compensatory window. But hopefully, the Steelers do too much of their own spending in free agency to qualify, anyway.
Free Agency Outlook:
While James Daniels is coming off a significant injury to end his Steelers tenure, he is still a quality starter. He is also still only 28 years old and perhaps the top guard on the market under 30. The biggest question will be how teams project him coming off of that Achilles tear.
With the reports of a greater-than-projected salary cap figure, could the Steelers end up back in the market for James Daniels? I don’t see any scenario where he doesn’t hit free agency. But what if teams are turned off because of his medicals? Are they prepared to hand Mason McCormick the full-time starting job if they have a shot at retaining Daniels for a reasonable figure?
The Steelers have a long list of free agents this year, but not absolutely can’t-lose names. While it includes significant players like Najee Harris and Dan Moore Jr., they are not the team’s priority. The biggest question is the quarterback position, working to choose between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. There are some choice role players, but they wouldn’t fall apart if they lost the entire lot—minus a quarterback.
