Will Sunday’s game vs. the Bengals be the Steelers last game of the 2018-19 season?
As most of you know by now, the Steelers need to win and have the Browns beat the Ravens in order to qualify for the playoffs.
If this doesn’t happen, the teams front office will immediately turn to the 2019 Draft and free agency.
As they do every year, Kevin Colbert, Mike Tomlin and Art Rooney face a number a number of decisions with unrestricted free agents and also with players they may choose to release.
Unrestricted Free Agents:
- RB: Le’Veon Bell, Stevan Ridley
- WR: Justin Hunter, Derrius Heyward-Bey, Eli Rogers
- TE: Jesse James, Xavier Grimble
- OL: Matt Feiler, Ramon Foster, B.J. Finney,
- DL: Daniel McCullers, Tyson Alualu,
- LB: L.J. Fort, Anthony Chickillo,
- CB: Coty Sensabaugh
- P: Jordan Berry
Possible Cap Cuts?
- OT Marcus Gilbert
- LB Bud Dupree
- LB Jon Bostic
- S Morgan Burnett
- CB Artie Burns
Who Stays/Who Goes?
To make this easy, here are the players I’d look to bring back: Eli Rogers, Jesse James, Matt Feiler, B.J. Finney, L.J. Fort, Coty Sensabaugh, Morgan Burnett, Jon Bostic
Regardless if they make the playoffs, aside from on the offensive side of the ball, the Steelers roster and coaching staff is overdue of a major overhaul.
Gilbert has proven to be unreliable and when given the opportunity, Feiler has done a nice filling in. As far as Dupree and Burns, it’s time to cut the cord as both have been given ample time to live up to their first round draft status.
Aside from a handful of defensive players such as Cam Heyward, TJ Watt, Stephon Tuitt, Joe Haden, Javon Hargrave and Terrell Edmunds, I’d consider the rest of the defensive depth expendable and highly replaceable.
This off-season has the potential to be one of the more active and entertaining in quite some time.