The Pittsburgh Steelers had a rare off-season. Actually you can't even call it rare. You can call it a unicorn. The first time in franchise history that they went out and signed multiple free agents during the first week of free agency. Even coming to terms with multiple players during the tampering period. Those things were unheard of for general manager, Kevin Colbert, and head coach Mike Tomlin prior to 2022. Tomlin sat down with Steelers.com reporter Missi Matthews on Sunday afternoon at the NFL Owners Meetings in Palm Beach, FL, and discussed just that:
"It was fun. It's always good to shop," Tomlin said. "To acquire talent. And there's two critical ways to acquire talent, free agency and the [NFL] draft. And free agency came first and it was good to be major players in it. I think it gives us flexibility and comfort as we push into the draft."
The Steelers signed quarterback Mitch Trubisky, linebacker Myles Jack, guard/center James Daniels, cornerback Levi Wallace, guard/center Mason Cole, and wide receiver/returner Gunner Olszewski, all from outside of the organization. That's a far cry from last season when they traded for a practice squad lineman in Rashaad Coward, and signed a swing tackle in Joe Haeg. We won't even get into the "non-big names" they signed.
With those signings, they were also able to retain several of their own. Cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon was the latest to re-sign with the Steelers on a two-year contract. Also returning is defensive tackle Montravius Adams, and Chukwuma Okorafor on new contracts. Returning on one-year tender contracts were linebacker Marcus Allen, Robert Spillane, and quarterback Dwayne Haskins. That's over $82 million that the Steelers dished out over the next 2-3 years. Unprecedent for this team and management.
Their gains didn't come without losses, though. They lost three receivers in JuJu Smith-Schuster, Ray-Ray McCloud, and James Washington. That leaves a hole that still remains on the Steelers offense. The Steelers will look to address that in the draft next month.
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