Chance to win enticed inside linebacker Myles Jack to sign with Steelers in free agency

Mike Tomlin didn’t have to say much to convince free-agent linebacker Myles Jack to sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“The first thing he said was we’re trying to win a championship, and we need that on defense,” Jack said Thursday after signing his two-year, $16 million contract. “Once he said that, it was a no-brainer.”

After being surprised that Jacksonville released him after six seasons, Jack found employment with the Steelers about 24 hours later.

It wasn’t just Tomlin’s recruiting pitch that swayed Jack. Defensive captain Cameron Heyward also put his closing skills to work.

“He must have knew before I knew,” Jack said. “He hit me up before the whole Tomlin thing happened.”

Jack is joining a franchise that, of course, hasn’t posted a losing season since 2003. It was the opposite in Jacksonville, where his only taste of winning came in 2017 when the Jaguars went 10-6 and upset the Steelers in the divisional round.

In his five other seasons with Jacksonville, the Jaguars went a combined 18-63 and were 4-29 the past two years.

“At this point, I really want to win games,” Jack said. “I want to be part of something, go home Sunday night and be happy and wake up Monday and be happy. I’m eager to win. With that comes championships. There’s really nothing else that can sell me to a team.”

Jack had at least 107 tackles in three of his past four seasons, and despite the mounting losses, he thought he had a secure future in Jacksonville. He was in the middle of a four-year, $57 million contract.

But Jack was released amid a spending spree by the Jaguars, whose four-year, $57 million deal with free-agent linebacker Foye Oluokun made him expendable.

“I was naive and thought I’ll have another linebacker to play with,” Jack said. “I definitely fell for that one. That’s life in this business. … I learned that in a pretty harsh way. But it’s pretty cool. It got me here, and it’s part of a bigger plan.”

Perhaps his biggest memory of his time in Jacksonville was the 45-42 upset win against the Steelers in the 2017 playoffs. Jack’s interception set up a touchdown on the next play that gave the Jaguars a 14-0 lead that propelled them to victory.

“The main thing I remember is that atmosphere, the fans and the energy,” he said. “It’s something that was almost out of a movie with those towels going.”