Steelers changing with times in approach to contracts, free agency

There was once a time via unofficial team policy that the Pittsburgh Steelers refused to give one-year contracts in free agency, instead insisting on multi-year deals.

For most of the three-decade history of NFL free agency, the Steelers never extended/renegotiated the contracts of non-quarterbacks before the final year of a pact was about to begin.

Until relatively recently, guaranteeing money beyond the up-front signing bonus was a no-no for the Steelers. So, too, was tacking “voidable years” onto a contract as a way to massage the salary-cap burden.

For all of the above, the Steelers ultimately abandoned their own unwritten rules.

The point? The Steelers — like all NFL teams, and not unlike any good organization in any industry or walk of life — have evolved with the times. It’s not that there is no such thing as “The Steelers Way,” so much as “The Steelers Way” was never an ironclad, rigid set of processes that does not allow for evolution.

The early portions of the 2024 offseason have raised eyebrows for fans and observers who have become accustomed to their perspective of “The Steelers Way.”

Within a 45-hour period beginning late Sunday night, the Steelers:

• Came to an agreement to sign a big-name, nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback.

• Agreed to terms with the top inside linebacker available in free agency, setting team records for most total money, biggest bonus and highest average annual salary given to an external signing in the process.

• Took one of their most-tenured and highest-paid players and traded him for a veteran starter at another position.

Coach Mike Tomlin likes to talk about “splash plays.” Each of the above could be considered a “splash move” for a Steelers team that long has built a reputation for patiently sitting on the sidelines before later picking through the bargain bin.

Indeed, there haven’t been many bigger stars in the NFL over the past decade than Russell Wilson, the 35-year-old quarterback the Steelers added on a one-year contract.

Additionally, the thee-year, $41 million contract with almost $14 million in guarantees given to former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Patrick Queen included figures unlike any given by the Steelers to an external free agent. Even while adjusting for the NFL’s salary-cap inflation since it was first introduced in 1993, not in 23 years had the Steelers signed an unrestricted free agent away from another team and given him an average annual value at such a high rate of the team’s overall payroll (reflected via it taking up 5.35% of the team’s salary cap).

Finally, there is the trade of sixth-year wide receiver Diontae Johnson to the Carolina Panthers for 28-year-old cornerback Donte Jackson (the deal also involved a swap of late-round draft picks). The Steelers hadn’t done a player-for-player trade of any kind since an August 2017 afterthought exchange of two players (Dashaun Phillips, Lucas Crowley) who never appeared in an NFL game from that point forward.

According to the compilation of trades listed in the team media guide, it had been 40 years since the Steelers made a veteran-for-veteran, player-for-player trade that involved starters: On July 30, 1984, they sent guard Steve Courson to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for fellow offensive lineman Ray Snell.

So while what general manager Omar Khan has been doing over recent days might not be unprecedented in Steelers annals, it certainly has differed from what predecessor Kevin Colbert did in his 22 years.

With the book far from closed on this cycle of free agency, the Steelers already have added five players projected to start (if you count punter). Dating to Khan’s first UFA period — per the team’s own accounting — the 11 players the Steelers signed in 2023 tied for the most since the NFL introduced unrestricted free agency in 1993.

Over the final four full offseasons under Colbert’s stewardship (2018-2021), the Steelers signed a collective 13 free agents.

At the start of last season, six players atop the Steelers depth chart at their positions were free agents signed earlier last year. Contrast that to the entire aforementioned span of four years, 2018-2021, when the Steelers made a combined six free-agent signings of players they reasonably expected to be starting-caliber contributors that first season.

But for proof this isn’t merely a Colbert/Khan disparity, note that in 2021 — with Colbert still in charge — the Steelers signed six free agents viewed as immediate starters.

Then again, none of those players came with the pedigree of Queen, a reigning second-team All-Pro and the consensus best player available at his position.

It arguably hadn’t been since the Steelers signed interior offensive lineman Jeff Hartings away from the Detroit Lions with a six-year, $24.3 million deal (a $4.05 average annual value that accounted for 6.01% of the salary cap) in 2001 that they had secured a player so highly regarded around the league as Queen.

And with cap space still remaining and holes yet to fill at center, wide receiver and cornerback, Khan isn’t done yet.

This certainly isn’t your father’s Steelers offseason.