As we did yesterday for our Pittsburgh Steelers offensive free agency wish list, we’ll do the same for the defensive possibilities today. My wish list of pending free agents the team should consider once the new league year kicks off next month.
These players are grouped by position but aren’t in an official order or ranking, though generally, more notable names are slotted at the top.
Keep in mind that this list only includes expiring contracts, not trade or cap casualties who haven’t officially been released. As always, let me know what players you’d add to it.
Defensive Line
My preference remains to draft a defensive lineman early, but there are several worthwhile free agents to consider.
B.J. Hill/Cincinnati Bengals
If Pittsburgh is serious about kicking NT Keeanu Benton out to defensive end, Hill is a logical fit to replace Benton in the middle. A wider body and more conventional run-stuffer, the Steelers know Hill well, competing against him and Cincinnati the past four seasons. Hill’s been as productive against Pittsburgh as any team, notching 31 tackles (six for a loss) and four sacks in nine career games.
Hill isn’t just a plugger. He has recorded at least three sacks in all four seasons with the Bengals. He’s been durable and available, playing in at least 15 games each season since being drafted in 2018. His seven tackles for a loss this season are a career-best.
If you’re into PFF grades, Hill ranked as a top-20 run-stopper in 2024, miles above Benton (No. 104) and Larry Ogunjobi (No. 127). The money won’t be pennies but it won’t be top-shelf for the position either, Pro Football Focus projecting an average of $10.25 million per season.
Hill, who turns 30 in April, is older than ideal, but if Pittsburgh wants a starting-level defender out of the gate without the projection of relying on a rookie, he’s a great beginning point.
Javon Kinlaw/New York Jets
I do my best not to repeat and recycle names from past wish lists. Then it looks like the repeated trials and failures from my mock offseason (the 2025 edition you’ll see soon). But I wanted to put Kinlaw on this list for the second straight season after a successful year with the New York Jets.
Starting all 17 games in 2024, Kinlaw logged nearly 700 snaps to finish with 40 tackles (five TFL), five QB hits, and 4.5 sacks. Nearly career-highs across the board. He brings prototypical defensive end size, a listed 6051, 300-plus pounds with nearly 35-inch arms in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Kinlaw is just 27 and could replace a presumed-released Larry Ogunjobi at base left end. Signing him wouldn’t even prevent Pittsburgh from using an early draft pick along the defensive line, but would give them more flexibility to roll with the punches of how the board breaks.
Teair Tart/Los Angeles Chargers
Let’s go back to nose tackle. Tart is your classic big man in the middle. A squatty body but with good length (33 3/4-inch arms), Tart didn’t officially record a start for the Chargers last season but still played almost 350 defensive snaps. He’s got an explosive get-off and experience playing over nose, a signing that could again move Benton over to LDE in base packages.
Like Hill, Tart was a top-20 run stuffer among defensive linemen last season and graded out as the NFL’s 12th-best player. It seems he’s never quite put his talent together, but having just turned 28 and been an undrafted free agent who has had to climb the NFL ladder, his career might be on the upswing. He’ll be fairly cheap, and at worst, I’d prefer him as a rotational nose tackle over Montravius Adams, who is a more athletic rusher than a run defender.
Cornerback
Pittsburgh has a big need in this area, and the team should spend good money on it in free agency.
Charvarius Ward/San Francisco 49ers
Now, we started getting to the fun part of free agency. Some cornerbacks, you back up the money truck to. Starting with Ward, who, at his best, is a great cover corner capable of locking half the field down. Pair him with Joey Porter Jr., and you will have a strong pair of corners.
Ward is coming off a down 2024 season, but for understandable reasons. He battled through a bunch of leg/foot injuries, and devastatingly, his daughter died mid-way through the season. Ward took time to be away from the team but returned later in the year, understandably admitting it was difficult for him to focus on football.
In 2023, Ward showed the caliber of player he can be. He intercepted five passes, broke up a league-high 23 passes, and forced a fumble en route to a Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro selection. Ward is active against the run and always around the ball while still in his late 20s. He’s not going to be cheap, and he figures to have plenty of suitors for his talents. PFF pegs him at $14.5 million per, but Pittsburgh could have their starting corners set for the next several years.
D.J. Reed/New York Jets
If not Ward, Reed is right up there as a 1B alternative. Overshadowed by Sauce Gardner in New York, Reed hasn’t put up big takeaway numbers but consistently played solid ball. He’s active in the backfield (four tackles for a loss, one sack) with 11 pass breakups in 2024.
Pro Football Focus graded him as the 31st-best overall cornerback of 2024 (for reference, Joey Porter Jr. was No. 102), while ranking top-35 in coverage and run defense. He’s primarily been a right cornerback in New York, who played sides more than shadowing, but that just spoke to the Jets’ confidence in both their starting corners.
Reed will cost a pretty penny, but he’s worth the investment.
Jonathan Jones/New England Patriots
One of my best draft hits. I was a big fan of Jones coming out of Auburn a decade ago (here’s my 2016 report if you want to step back in time). Turning 32 in September, he’s older than Reed or Ward. Jones’ lack of size will be knocked, but it hasn’t prevented him from starting 71 games, including at least 14 in each of the past three years.
He’s a reliable tackler who plays aggressively and brings lots of experience. Jones wouldn’t be my first choice, but a fallback option that would keep the door open for Pittsburgh to draft a corner within the first two days. He’ll also be much cheaper, a fraction of what others on this list are expected to get.
Rasul Douglas/Buffalo Bills
Douglas is a really interesting candidate. He’s a big corner with experience in the slot, though he’s primarily worked on the outside in his 1.5 seasons with Buffalo after being traded over from the Green Bay Packers. He made an immediate impact with the Bills, intercepting four passes in nine games with Buffalo in 2023.
His 2024 season wasn’t as impactful, as he failed to pick off a pass across 15 starts. Douglas is big at 6’2″ and more than 200 pounds with good length. He played in a similar zone structure in Buffalo as Pittsburgh ran a year ago. Douglas came in for a local pre-draft visit back in 2017.
Mike Hilton/Cincinnati Bengals
Let’s talk slot options. Hilton isn’t No. 1 on my board, but this one still makes sense from a “want” and “expect” standpoint. Hilton still has value, and I can see Pittsburgh still having interest. The Steelers need improved run defense and a corner who can blitz, failing to get it from their slot corners last year. Beanie Bishop Jr. made splash plays, but his run defense was just okay, and he’s not an effective rusher.
Hilton can still do both in spades. He’s notched 12 tackles for a loss in each of the last two years. To put that in perspective, his 24 are seven more than EDGE Alex Highsmith has registered over that span. Hilton also picked up 38 tackles against the run, an elite number for a DB.
There are fair concerns over Hilton’s ability to cover, which was never his strong suit in Pittsburgh. At 31, it’s not moving in the right direction. But I’d offer two counterpoints. One, with Porter traveling, there’s less concern over Hilton getting put in bad matchups than his first stint with the team when Steelers’ corners are still stuck to sides. Two, with Pittsburgh playing a record number of nickel snaps in 2024, that slot corner is as much another linebacker as he is defensive back.
Since Hilton left, Pittsburgh has had a revolving door of messy slot corners. Maybe the true replacement is bringing him back.
Nate Hobbs/Las Vegas Raiders
Much as I’ve made the case for Hilton, anyone who has read the site or listened to the Terrible Podcast this offseason knows Nate Hobbs is my No. 1 slot corner target. Younger, bigger, and a better cover corner than Hilton, Hobbs is probably also cheaper due to a history of nagging and freak injuries and illness (though he played through pneumonia late in 2024 before being sat in a meaningless finale).
Often used as an all-situations player as a quasi-third linebacker in the Raiders’ 4-2-5 front, Hobbs plays the run hard and can cover. In 2023, he racked up 86 tackles and a sack while logging 88 percent of the snaps across the 13 games he played. He was limited to just 11 games in 2024 but still had nearly 50 tackles, five breakups, and a pick.
Hobbs tested as a top-tier athlete coming out of Illinois, doesn’t turn 26 until June, but has plenty of experience with 38 starts in 51 career appearances.
Crucially, there’s also a connection that could help convince him to come to Pittsburgh. Steelers’ defensive backs coach Gerald Alexander served as the Raiders’ safeties coach in 2023. He didn’t work directly with a corner like Hobbs, but they were obviously part of the secondary and would be a familiar face.
This would be a home run signing and tops my list. Even knowing he might not play all 17 games, there’s depth with Bishop as a capable backup option.
Mike Hughes/Atlanta Falcons
Underrated name here. Hughes got his first chance to start full-time last season, recording 66 tackles and six pass deflections across 15 starts. The interceptions weren’t there, and he has just three in seven seasons, but Pittsburgh’s culture seems to turn almost everyone into ballhawks (except Porter). He primarily played in the slot in 2023 before bumping outside in 2024, giving him the flexibility to align anywhere now that Pittsburgh travels their corners.
PFF graded Hughes as the 27th-best cover corner and allowed a low yards per reception (10.4) despite a relatively high ADOT (11.4). In a Week 1 loss to Pittsburgh, Hughes recorded three tackles for a loss. Here’s a look at them all.
The Steelers have a history of signing players who have had success against them. Of course, he also knows Arthur Smith after Atlanta signed him for the 2023 season.
Hughes just turned 28 and would be a more mid-tier cornerback option with mid-tier pricing. As just one reference point, Spotrac placed him under $5 million per season.
Avonte Maddox/Philadelphia Eagles
Bouncing back to a slot option, Maddox is in the Hilton tier, though he should be cheaper. With a connection to the city thanks to attending Pitt in college, there’s previously been buzz about him landing in Pittsburgh.
Still in his 20s, he played in all 17 games for Philadelphia in 2024. His production was hardly overwhelming, but he recorded 20 tackles and five pass breakups. He’s a good tackler, and the advanced metrics were in his favor (77.4 QB Rating against, an above-average coverage grade from PFF).
File this under the “shrewd” signing category but a backup plan at corner. Plus, he brings a veteran presence and a Super Bowl ring to a young cornerback room. Maddox has also played a ton on special teams, with over 100 kick coverage and 72 punt return snaps in 2024.
Asante Samuel Jr./Los Angeles Chargers
This is more dot-connecting than anything else. The Steelers showed interest in Samuel during the 2021 pre-draft process. They held a Zoom meeting with him, and Mike Tomlin attended his Florida State Pro Day. Plus, Pittsburgh loves their bloodlines and Samuel’s are good, his dad a ball-hawking corner with 51 career picks.
A former second-round pick, his career was motoring along well until a shoulder injury ended his season in October, limiting him to just four games. That makes him a value bounce-back candidate, still just 25 when Pittsburgh’s season kicks off. From 2021-2023, Samuel intercepted two passes each season, and his career was on the upswing.
Jourdan Lewis/Dallas Cowboys
Rounding out the cornerback list with one more slot option, my No. 2 choice above Mike Hilton but below Nate Hobbs. It sounds like Dallas would like to re-sign Lewis, but whether or not they will remains to be seen. A physical corner who forced three fumbles in 2023, he started 13 games for Dallas last year and racked up 71 tackles, including three for a loss.
Pro Football Focus graded him as the No. 29 corner in the league and No. 8 in coverage. He’ll turn 30 in August, but he still has gas in the tank.
Safety
Ashtyn Davis/New York Jets & Jaylinn Hawkins/New England Patriots
Couple names I’ve mentioned before, so I’ll lump them together, each having Gerald Alexander connections. Backup safety is a need, with Pittsburgh having little behind Minkah Fitzpatrick and DeShon Elliott.
Alexander coached Davis and Hawkins in college at Cal. Both became NFL draft picks and function as rotational/backup safeties. Davis is more versatile and athletic, but both are cut from similar cloth. Davis has five picks over the last two years, while Hawkins started seven games for the Patriots in 2024, recording 48 tackles.
Hawkins is probably a little cheaper, while Davis is probably the better talent. Neither will break the bank, and they would serve as top safety depth, possibly seeing dime snaps on third-and-long and obvious pass situations.
Damar Hamlin/Buffalo Bills
It may be too easy to connect the dots here, and it’ll be interesting to see what kind of market Hamlin is greeted with. He started 14 regular-season games in 2024, but he still profiles as a borderline starter and may not have immediate opportunities to be the guy for NFL teams, given his market projection of around $3 million.
In 2024, he had 89 tackles and two interceptions. Of course, he’s a Pittsburgh kid who played college ball for the Panthers, so he would make for a feel-good story and a quality No. 3 safety.
