Toughest cut or keep predictions for the Steelers in 2023

Jack hasn’t lived up to his Steelers contract

I remember when Steelers nation was rejoicing when the team inked Myles Jack after the Jaguars cut him in the offseason. He was an up-and-coming young linebacker over his rookie deal, but as the Jaguars defense regressed, so did he. He never lived up to the mega-deal Jacksonville signed him to before cutting him. I was skeptical of his regressing play, but I still expected a solid starter at linebacker.

Jack has easily fallen below those expectations. While his early season play was fine, he continued to regress as the season progressed. This culminated in him essentially getting benched late in the season for the combination of Robert Spillane and Mark Robinson. For the proverbial savior of the Steelers linebacker room, he has become more of a liability than a leader.

Originally, I had the team keeping Jack despite his average play due to the turnover this position will likely go through. With his apparent benching though mixed in with that poor play, there isn’t much of a choice here. You can’t justify keeping Jack’s 11.25-million-dollar cap hit, and the 8 million dollars in savings is too good to pass up. This position will be gutted with Jack gone, but I don’t see another way in 2023.

Prediction: Jack is released

The Steelers will need to be aggressive this offseason as they need to add as much talent for their young quarterback as possible. Most of the cuts on this list, while saving cap space, are due to lackluster play. There are some hard decisions to be made, but this seems to be the best route for the team ahead of the 2023 offseason.