Steelers and Stephon Tuitt need to come to a decision before free agency

Stephon Tuitt has reportedly expressed interest in returning to the Steelers, but here’s why a decision must be made prior to the 2022 free agency period.

2021 was a hard year for Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman, Stephon Tuitt. The former 2014 second-round pick tragically lost his brother in a hit-and-run incident over the summer and he dealt with a lingering knee injury.

The two of these misfortunes combined caused him to miss the entire 2021 season, and many fans wondered (and still wonder today) if the clock has run out on Tuitt in Pittsburgh. Fortunately, there is some good news.

After going months without hearing so much as a whisper about Tuitt, Kevin Colbert addressed this top on Steelers Nation Radio — claiming that Stephon has expressed a desire to play football again.

There was a lot of gray area in his statement. Does this mean that Tuitt is going to be suiting up in 2022? If he does play this year, will it be for the Steelers? Tuitt is set to have the third-highest cap hit on the entire team after missing a full season of football.

I’m hoping the organization already knows how this is going to play out, as the team and Stephon Tuitt need to come to a decision before the 2022 free agency period.

Steelers and Tuitt must make a decision now

Free agency is set to kick off at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time on March 16th, and teams are allowed to start discussing contracts with players on March 14th. This doesn’t give Pittsburgh’s front office much time to know what they will need to do.

With more free-agent spending money than this team has ever had this offseason, the Steelers really need to know if Tuitt is going to be back or if he’s a player they must look to replace in free agency.

While this isn’t exactly a stellar free-agent class there are some established interior defensive lineman who could help fill Tuitt’s shoes if he’s not going to be part of the plan moving forward. Guys like Akeim Hicks, Jarran Reed, Maliek Collins, and DaQuan Jones make sense to bring in if Tuitt isn’t going to be around.

The problem with not knowing right away is that this thin group of interior defenders could get snatched up early in free agency and Pittsburgh could be forced to spend a reasonably high draft choice on a defensive lineman this year to help fill the void.

This is not a particularly strong IDL group in the 2022 NFL Draft by any means, and I would hate for the Steelers to pigeonhole themselves into drafting one of these guys this year when they can find a similar player in free agency.

I’ve always been a huge Stephon Tuitt fan, and I think he’s been one of the most underrated players on the team for years. However, the two sides need to come to a decision right away so Pittsburgh knows how to approach the 2022 free agency period.