The Pittsburgh Steelers reached an injury settlement with linebacker Tyler Murray this week, removing him from their injured reserve list and allowing him to become a free agent, according to the NFL transactions report.
Murray suffered a groin injury during training camp practice on Aug. 6, he was waived with an injury designation on Aug. 7, cleared waivers the following day and reverted to the Steelers’ injured reserve list.
Because groin injuries are rarely season-ending, it was always likely that the Steelers and Murray would reach an injury settlement. Players on the injured reserve list can be paid an injury settlement, which pro-rates their salary for the number of weeks they are expected to miss. The number of weeks’ of Murray’s settlement has not yet been released.
Once those weeks have passed, Murray can sign with any NFL team. If he wants to return to the Steelers, he cannot do so until an additional three weeks have passed. So if Murray is expected to miss one week of the 2024 regular season, he could not re-sign with the Steelers until Week 5.
If he had not reached an injury settlement with the Steelers within five days of him going on the injured reserve list, he would have been forced to remain there for the rest of the season.
Murray was on his second stint with the Steelers. They signed him to their practice squad in the middle of last season while the team was going through a rash of injuries at the linebacker position. Though he stayed just one week, he made enough of an impression for the Steelers to re-sign him to a future contract for 2024 after the season.
He had been working with rookie Jacoby Windmon on the third team defense.