While each of these Steelers are great players, the writing is on the wall for them, and 2021 is likely their last ride with the team.
The Steelers are gearing up for, seemingly, one last push at a Super Bowl this season. Despite the losses suffered to the team during the offseason, there is still hope that this group can find some success in 2021. Looking further ahead to 2022 though, it appears as though this team will be set up to transition to the next phase as a lot of core veterans end up leaving. Here are the four most notable Steelers likely in their final year with the team.
Steelers Ben Roethlisberger
This one is about as set in stone as you can get. The Steelers opted to keep Ben Roethlisberger around for one final season by handing him a deal with voidable years to lower his cap hit. While that didn’t guarantee 2021 will be it for him, the contract extension for Mason Rudolph may have. It makes little sense for the team to re-sign Rudolph this early on unless they are expecting him to start and for Roethlisberger to retire.
Unless Roethlisberger really lights it up this season and has no issue going one more year, expect 2021 to be it for in. While he has seemingly been mulling retirement for about five years now, it is hard to imagine him playing past this year. The Steelers have set themselves up for life after him in 2022, and him staying around would only delay the inevitable. Roethlisberger gets one final chance this season to build on his hall of fame career before the reigns get handed over to Rudolph next season.
Steelers Joe Haden
Joe Haden has easily been one of the best Steelers free agent additions during the Kevin Colbert era. After the Browns released him, the team was quick to bring him in and give him a contract. Since then, he has been a major reason that this secondary has taken the turnaround that it finally did. After years of mediocrity, this unit has become one of the NFL’s better groups. While there are plenty of stars in this group, finally getting a capable starting corner was the turning point this group needed.
Now though, Haden is entering his age 32 season and he is set to be a free agent next year. While the team could certainly try and bring him back, age does appear to be catching up with him. While never an elite athlete, Haden looked a step slower last year. He was fine in coverage, but some of the more athletic receivers really became mismatches for him as his athleticism continues to diminish.
Honestly, losing Haden is a scary proposition as it puts the Steelers corners into murky territory. Both he and Steven Nelson would be gone, meaning that unless someone is brought in, the team is back to their drafted corners starting. This wasn’t a recipe for success before, and it could signify an end of a relatively short era of successful secondary play. Haden has been a great starter, but age will likely lead to him being off the team next season. That really opens the door though for this group to regress back to pre-2017 versions of itself.
Steelers David DeCastro
Writing about 2021 being David DeCastro’s final season seems almost surreal. The 2012 first-round pick has been the best member of the line for the last decade almost, and he will only be 32 once the season concludes. While that is on the older side, linemen, especially interior lineman, can play well into their mid-thirties. That said, with his contract set to expire next year, there is no reason to believe he will be around past this season.
DeCastro had his worst season as a full-time starter last year. He appeared to be playing hurt, and the reports of him being injured during camp make it seems like he hasn’t really healed this offseason. Despite not being ancient for a lineman, father time could be catching up to DeCastro sooner than expected. If that is the case, the Steelers may not opt to extend him past this season.
What is really concerning is that DeCastro may not make it through this season given the team met with Trai Turner recently. One would think that Turner would want to start, and unless Kevin Dotson has been struggling, that would indicate more long-term issues with DeCastro. Even if DeCastro suits up in 2021, a solid season still leaves him a free agent in 2022. The team would have to use the franchise tag to keep him, something they may not want to do given his age. While he is the most likely to stick around out of everyone on this list, there is a real chance 2021 is it for DeCastro as a Steelers player.
Steelers JuJu Smith-Schuster
To be fair, I was saying the same thing about J.J. Smith-Schuster this time last year. He was entering a contract year and receivers tend to get paid well as free agents. The 2021 free agency pool of receivers was undervalued though, and as a result, it opened the door for the team to bring Smith-Schuster back on an extremely team-friendly deal. Now, the team is in a similar spot as they were last year, and it once again seems as though Smith-Schuster will be out the door.
Frankly, Smith-Schuster made a smart bet on himself returning to the Steelers this season. The Ravens are a run-heavy team, and the Chiefs focus their passing around only a few core players. With the Steelers, Smith-Schuster has familiarity and is still the perceived top dog of the group. As well, Matt Canada will hopefully allow him to run some deeper routes, as his usage, as essentially a running back in the passing game severely limited his production.
The issue is, will he want to return to a team that is likely led by Rudolph next season? I would guess no. Even if he did, with Chase Claypool set to develop more entering his second season, the Steelers may opt to roll with him instead of trying to pay Smith-Schuster top money. Expect Smith-Schuster to rebound this season, but the odds of him returning are slim. If he balls out, the team will have to franchise tag him so he avoids free agency. If he is just a marginal starter, he may go elsewhere and look for a better opportunity.
The Steelers are in a precarious position entering this season. While the roster is still talented, it is quickly falling apart. These four core starters are entering potentially their final year with the team. For each of them, except for maybe DeCastro, there seems like there is little that they can do to keep them on this team past 2021.