6-time Pro Bowl guard David DeCastro released by Steelers

In a surprising midsummer transaction, the Pittsburgh Steelers released six-time Pro Bowl guard David DeCastro on Thursday.

A reliable veteran and trusted voice in the locker room, DeCastro joins longtime teammate Maurkice Pouncey as multi-time former All-Pro offensive linemen who left the Steelers this offseason. A nine-time Pro Bowl center, Pouncey lined up to the left of DeCastro for most of the past nine seasons on teams that made the playoffs five times and five times ranked among the top seven in the NFL in total offense. Pouncey retired in February.

“David was without a doubt one of the premier offensive linemen during his time with us,” general manager Kevin Colbert said in a statement. “He helped us win a lot of football games, but it was David’s consistency, reliability and professionalism that stood out more than anything else. We wish him the best moving forward in his career.”

The official league transaction designated DeCastro’s contract termination as “non-football injury.” The NFL Network reported DeCastro recently had a chronically balky ankle evaluated. He missed five games because of injury the past three seasons after missing none for that reason the previous four.

The Steelers acted quickly to fill their open guard spot, agreeing to contract terms with five-time Pro Bowler Trai Turner. A third-round draft pick out of LSU, Turner made the Pro Bowl with Carolina every year from 2014-19 before being traded to the Los Angeles Chargers. He missed seven games because of injury in his one season with the team and was released in March.

DeCastro did not participate in the Steelers’ three mandatory minicamp practices last week at Heinz Field, but he was on hand for the first workout watching in a T-shirt and shorts. Coach Mike Tomlin dismissed a question about any possible injury to DeCastro or any other Steelers player.

Still, questions began to arise about DeCastro’s future, and they were magnified when the Steelers’ interest in Turner was revealed.

DeCastro’s release saves the Steelers $8.75 million in salary-cap space, though more than $5 million in “dead money” still needs to be accounted for.

The Steelers’ first-round pick in 2012, DeCastro’s 124 career starts rank 11th among Steelers offensive lineman and sixth among guards. DeCastro was named All-Pro three consecutive seasons from 2015-17, including first-team designations twice. He was voted to Pro Bowls each season from 2015 to 2020.

The only Steelers offensive linemen voted to more Pro Bowls than DeCastro were Pouncey, Mike Webster (nine), Dermontti Dawson (seven) and Alan Faneca (seven). The latter three have been honored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Pouncey is a candidate to join them in the future.

But DeCastro’s play slipped in 2020, when he arguably had his worst season at age 30.

In Pro Football Focus’ subjective grades, for example, DeCastro fell to 42nd in the NFL among qualifying guards. DeCastro was PFF’s 14th-highest graded guard in 2019, 12th-highest the year before that and was the league’s highest-rated guard in 2017.

For the 2020 season, ESPN ranked DeCastro 43rd and 37th among NFL guards, respectively, in pass-block win rate and run-block win rate. The Steelers have finished among the worst four teams in rushing offense each of the past three seasons.

But DeCastro was expected to be a veteran leader of a unit that lost Pouncey and longtime left guard Ramon Foster to retirement and longtime left tackle Alejandro Villanueva to free agency over the past 16 months. Until the signing of Turner, the most veteran projected starter on the Steelers’ offensive line was left tackle Chuks Okorafor, who has 19 career starts.

Among current players, only quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and defensive lineman Cameron Heyward had longer tenures with the Steelers than DeCastro.