The Pittsburgh Steelers need help along their defensive line, and they need it badly. The fact that they released Larry Ogunjobi suggests they had high confidence they could find his replacement. Unfortunately, it appears they have underestimated the market, which has ballooned considerably this offseason. Even when teams cut a high-priced defensive lineman, another team quickly scoops him up, like former Steelers DL Javon Hargrave.
Some hoped that the Steelers would sign Hargrave as their defensive line upgrade, but not at the market price. Despite his age and coming off a major injury, he still fetched $15 million a year over two years. Equally problematic, the Vikings gave him $19 million guaranteed, implying second-year guarantees. The Steelers only offer those to franchise quarterbacks and perennial first-team All-Pros.
In fact, it feels like the Steelers are out of options if they want to meaningfully upgrade their defensive line. By now, we are down to players signing mostly one-year deals, plus Calais Campbell. And the Steelers already have Cameron Heyward for their defensive line Knitting Club for Oldtimers.
It appears the Steelers planned to address the defensive line in free agency but lost the bidding war. Asked if the team was holding out for the draft or if it had made offers that players declined, Gerry Dulac wrote it was “more the latter” in a recent chat for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
In fact, he addressed the Steelers’ defensive line situation frequently throughout the chat. “I think they missed the boat on signing impactful DL”, he wrote, and that seems to be the case. “They [weren’t] going to pay the type of money those guys like [Milton] Williams and [Javon] Kinlaw got in free agency”. He also said that they “had their eye on” Kinlaw, who signed a three-year, $45 million deal with Washington.
Dulac has been beating the drum for the Steelers to upgrade their defensive line for years, as a personal belief. While he says that the “needed to” do so in free agency, he questioned who is left that is better than the players they already have, “which isn’t much”. The market is so robust that even Ogunjobi received more than the Steelers were set to pay him in 2025.
While he said there isn’t a defensive lineman out there worth paying big money to, he offered that maybe the Steelers “make a trade to get one”. Failing that, he suggests they might need to use both their first- and third-round picks on the position. They are trading their second-round pick to the Seattle Seahawks in exchange for WR DK Metcalf.
Finally, he concluded his thoughts on the defensive line by agreeing that the Steelers didn’t see free agency going this way, adding that they won’t add any lineman of substance at this point. The good news, of course, is that the 2025 NFL Draft is loaded with excellent defensive line prospects, and the Steelers could certainly land two immediate contributors if they get them early.
