Steelers Waive Tegray Scales, Rex Sunahara, Isaiah Johnson

The Pittsburgh Steelers have waived inside linebacker Tegray Scales, long snapper Rex Sunahara and waived/injured cornerback Isaiah Johnson, the team announced on Tuesday.

Scales, 26, spent parts of each of the last three seasons with the Steelers. He spent all of the 2019 offseason with the club, but was waived after training camp. After stints in the XFL and with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he re-joined the Steelers in 2020.

He played in four games with the club in the 2020 season without recording any statistics and played just one game in the 2021 season, where he played four special teams snaps against the Cleveland Browns in Week 17. Last season, he spent time with the Cleveland Browns and Bengals before the Steelers signed him.

The 6-foot-6, 242-pound Sunahara played basketball at Rhode Island before transferring to West Virginia to become a long snapper. He served as the team’s primary long snapper in 2018 and 2019

After that season, he earned a spot as a semifinalist for the Patrick Mannelly Award and participated in the 2020 NFLPA Collegiate All-Star Game and 2020 Hula Bowl.

The Miami Dolphins signed Sunahara as an undrafted free agent, but released him. He re-signed with the Dolphins in January on a reserve/future contract for the 2021 season. The Dolphins released him in July, re-signed him in August, and then released him again on Aug. 10.

He signed a futures contract with Pittsburgh in January and looked to back up starting long snapper Christian Kuntz heading into next season.

Johnson is waived/injured, which means that he suffered a football-related injury. The Steelers are putting him through waivers and then if he clears waivers, he moves to the injured reserved list. This puts him on the IR, while also giving other teams the option to sign him if they want to.

Since this is before the regular season, Johnson has to stay on the IR the rest of the season, unless he and the Steelers reach an injury settlement. The injury settlement pays the player what he earns through the projected end of his injury and then the team releases that player. Essentially, the team pays the player an undisclosed figure to leave, unless they really want to keep them around for the next season.

Johnson spent a week on the Steelers’ practice squad last season in December before the team released him. He signed a futures contract with the Steelers in January for the 2022 season.

Johnson came out of Houston as a fourth-round draft pick in 2019 for the Oakland Raiders. He played in 19 games over two seasons for the Raiders, making 15 tackles and defending five passes.

The Raiders waived Johnson at the end of training camp before the 2021 season. He spent a week with the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squads in October before joining the Steelers on Dec. 14. After the Steelers waived him, he spent another week on the Arizona Cardinals practice squad.