Steelers players who will not be back in Pittsburgh in 2023
By Tommy Jaggi
The price isn’t right with Steelers linebacker, Myles Jack
This is certainly the most surprising name on the list, but it makes more sense than not to believe that he won’t be on the roster next year. Though the Pittsburgh Steelers did sign Myles Jack to a two-year deal this past offseason, they backloaded his contract in an effort to keep the first-year money at a minimum.
This means that the team is set to pay $11.2 million towards the cap if Jack is on the roster for the 2023 season. While this isn’t an unforgiving amount of money, it’s a lot for a player who most would consider to be just an average starting linebacker at this point in his career.
The Steelers found themselves in a similar situation with another former Jaguars linebacker last offseason. Though Jack is clearly better than Joe Schobert, Pittsburgh made an easy decision to cut Schobert because of the cap savings. This was despite having a despicable group of linebackers on the roster.
Parting ways with both Devin Bush and Myles Jack in the same offseason could be tough, but the Steelers could use Jack’s $8 million cap savings towards a younger, better linebacker like Tremaine Edmunds, Roquan Smith, Leighton Vander Esch, or T.J. Edwards.
The Steelers always tack on voidable years or give Jack an extension to decrease his cap hit in 2023, but it just doesn’t make sense to do this with the situation this team is in. Jack will be a 28-year-old linebacker with degenerative knee issues coming off an average year, and the Steelers should take the cap savings by releasing him and put it toward someone else.
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With the way things are heading, it certainly seems like all of the aforementioned players could be packing their bags and cleaning out their lockers following the 2022 season. The Pittsburgh Steelers have seen a lot of roster turnover lately, but expect more of the same in 2023.