Robert Spillane never left the field on defense at the end of his fourth season with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
He’ll be taking that durability westward.
Spillane, a 27-year-old inside linebacker, agreed to a two-year contract with the Las Vegas Raiders on Tuesday, a source confirmed. The deal is worth $9 million and includes $4 million in guaranteed money. It won’t become official until 4 p.m. Wednesday.
In his final year with the Steelers, when he was a restricted free agent, he earned a career-high $2.433 million.
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Spillane opened the season as the top backup inside linebacker with the Steelers, but by the end of the year he had supplanted former No. 10 overall draft pick Devin Bush as a starter. Spillane started the final four games of the season – and played every single defensive snap in those games, all Steelers victories.
Spillane averaged nine tackles in that stretch and accumulated 36 of his 79 tackles in that span.
An undrafted free agent from Western Michigan, Spillane spent the 2018 season with the Tennessee Titans. He signed with the Steelers in the 2019 offseason and began that year on the practice squad before establishing himself as a role player in 2020.
In the past three seasons, Spillane started 16 of the 42 games he appeared in with the Steelers.
Bush also is a free agent after the Steelers declined to pick up the fifth-year option on his contract.
