The Pittsburgh Steelers have released EDGE rusher Preston Smith, the team announced Friday evening. It’s an expected move given Smith’s high 2025 base salary that left the team little choice but to cut him.
The Steelers traded for Smith ahead of the 2024 deadline, acquiring him from the Green Bay Packers for a 2025 seventh-round pick. Smith appeared in eight games, making zero starts and serving in a rotational role. He finished the year with Pittsburgh recording 13 tackles and two sacks, seeing additional playing time when injuries to Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig left depth thin.
But by year’s end, the group regained health and Smith was squeezed out of a role. He was inactive for the Steelers’ Week 17 game against the Kansas City Chiefs and also didn’t dress for the team’s playoff loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
His release will free up $13.4 million in space for 2025 (prior to roster displacement) as Pittsburgh heads into the offseason with a comfortable amount to spend in free agency. Smith was slated to earn a 2025 base salary of $12 million. It’s one of several cuts Pittsburgh could make to free up chunks of cap room.
A second-round pick of the Washington Redskins in 2015, Preston Smith has appeared in 163 games and made 138 starts. He spent four years in Washington before going to the Packers and having his best seasons there, including a 12-sack campaign in 2019. But with Green Bay making a scheme change in 2024 that made Smith a 4-3 end, he no longer was a fit and became expendable, ushering a trade to Pittsburgh.
Outside linebacker is low on the team’s list of needs, but the Steelers prefer to have solid depth at the position. Adding a low-level veteran or using a late draft pick on the position isn’t out of the question.
The Steelers enter the offseason with T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith as their starting outside linebackers. Nick Herbig will again serve as a quality No. 3 rusher. The fourth spot is up for grabs, though Jeremiah Moon has an inside track after spending 2024 with the team, notching nine tackles and blocking a punt against the Las Vegas Raiders.
