By CJ Lester
SteelerNation.com
One of the dominoes waiting to fall this off-season is OLB Bud Dupree. Dupree had 11.5 sacks, 68 tackles, 17 QB hits, 4 forced fumbles, and led the team with 16 TFL (tackles for loss) last season. Liz Mullen of Sports Business Journal has reported that soon-to-be free agent Bud Dupree has left his current representation CAA before hitting free agency. In his last press conference of 2019, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach, Mike Tomlin said that re-signing Bud Dupree is a “high priority.” With Dupree moving on from CAA, it is still unclear what agency he will choose to represent him. The NFLPA states that a player must wait five days to sign with a new agency after leaving another. After a very productive season, Dupree is probably looking to get a big money contract. The Steelers will have to restructure some contracts, make some cuts, and extend some players to manipulate the salary cap in order to have enough money to re-sign the outside linebacker.
As productive as Dupree was this past season, he has only started making a big impact this past season in his 5th year. Sometimes, players are late bloomers and it takes time for them to explode onto the scene. Before the 2019 season, Bud Dupree was seen as a disappointing 1st round draft pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. Some Steeler fans would say that Bud Dupree has more to come and there are some that believe that he only improved due to playing on a contract year. The latter are skeptical about extending Dupree long-term because he has only had one productive year in the past five years. The Steelers could place the franchise tag on him to give it another year to see where his production goes. However, the Steelers may be weary of doing so because of the battle that took place with former Steelers RB Le’Veon Bell. No one wants to see another player sit out a season not wanting to play on the franchise tag.
The Steelers could look to find a cheaper option in free agency or try to replace Dupree through the NFL Draft with one of their first couple of picks. With the EDGE class of 2020 appearing to be the weakest in years, I am not sure the Steelers will find an immediate replacement for Dupree’s production.
Do you think the Steelers should re-sign Bud Dupree or look to replace him in free agency or the Draft? Let us know in the comments below!
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