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The Pittsburgh Steelers are a team who doesn’t have the capital, or salary cap space, to be big players in free agency. While this is disappointing for the 2020 season, it also can be seen as a positive for the 2021 NFL Draft.
The more free agents who depart the team, and the Steelers not bringing in many players, will equate to the team getting more compensatory draft picks than they might usually see on any given year.
With the start of the new league year, the Steelers lose another Unrestricted Free Agent with safety Sean Davis leaving to sign a one-year contract with the Washington Redskins.
Sean Davis goes to his hometown Redskins on a one-year, $5 million deal. Good for him. #Steelers #dkps
— Dale Lolley (@dlolley_pgh) March 18, 2020
Davis’ deal is worth $5 million dollars, and is just the latest player to get a pay day the Steelers can’t, or wouldn’t, match for how they would deploy them if they stayed. In other words, the Steelers had no interest in paying Davis that much money to play behind Minkah Fitzpatrick and Terrell Edmunds.
If you add up who has come and gone, it would look like this:
Gone:
Javon Hargrave
Tyler Matakevich
Sean Davis
B.J. Finney
Come:
Derek Watt
While the Steelers still could sign players, they are sitting pretty to recoup some draft capital for the loss of so many players. Jordan Dangerfield, veteran safety, was not given a tender as a Restricted Free Agent (RFA) which makes him an Unrestricted Free Agent (UFA) at this point. If he departs it would only add to the Steelers’ overall compensatory situation.
Stay tuned to BTSC for the latest news and notes surrounding the black-and-gold as they press on throughout NFL Free Agency and prepare for the 2020 NFL Draft in just over a month from now.