Steelers add top free-agent guard Isaac Seumalo from Eagles in free agency
Late on the sixth day since NFL teams were free to negotiate with this offseason’s free agents, the Pittsburgh Steelers nabbed one of the biggest names still available.
Guard Isaac Seumalo agreed to terms on a three-year deal with the Steelers, a source confirmed late Saturday night. Seumalo entered free agency as one of the top offensive lineman available after he was a Pro Bowl alternate for the NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles this past season.
The 6-foot-4, 303-pound Seumalo was graded as the ninth-best guard in the NFL by Pro Football Focus in 2022, during which he allowed only one sack. Seumalo, 29, started all 20 games for the Eagles last season. It was the final year of a three-year, $15.9 million extension he signed to stay with Philadelphia, the team that had drafted him in the third round in 2016.
Seumalo was a right guard this past season, but prior to that most of 60 career starts were at left guard.
Adding Seumalo was a surprising move coming two days after the Steelers introduced another veteran guard – Nate Herbig – as a free-agent acquisition. A common thread between the two? Both played for the Eagles. That’s notable because the Steelers’ assistant general manager, Andy Weidl, was hired away from the Eagles last year.
Although Herbig spent 2022 with the New York Jets, he and Seumalo were teammates in Philadelphia from 2019-2021.
The addition of both puts the composition of the Steelers’ interior offensive line up in the air. James Daniels and Mason Cole were signed as veteran free agents last spring to man right guard and center, respectively. Kevin Dotson, who is entering the final year of his contract, is the incumbent starter at left guard. Dotson is considered the Steelers lineman whose grip on a starting gig is most in peril.
Before playing more than 96% of Philadelphia’s offensive snaps this past season, Seumalo had missed 21 of the Eagles’ 33 games in 2020 and 2021 because of injury. A foot ailment ended Seumalo’s 2021 season in Week 3.
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Staff writer Joe Rutter contributed.
Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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