{"id":114949,"date":"2026-02-16T01:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T01:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/114949\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T01:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T01:45:08","slug":"steelers-predicted-to-lose-cb-asante-samuel-jr-to-cowboys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/114949\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers Predicted to Lose CB Asante Samuel Jr. to Cowboys"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2255994149.jpg\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Asante Samuel Jr.\"   decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>NFL insider Greg Aumen projected Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Asante Samuel Jr. to sign with the Dallas Cowboys this offseason.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/pittsburgh-steelers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> got a little lucky when cornerback <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/nfl\/player\/asante-samuel\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Asante Samuel Jr.<\/a> chose to sign with them in November. Although he was coming off serious neck surgery and trying to return in the middle of the season, Samuel wasn\u2019t short on suitors.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, he chose to join the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/pittsburgh-steelers\/\" title=\"Steelers\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"167450\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers<\/a> defense for the 2025 stretch run.<\/p>\n<p>But that might be the only time he spends in black and gold.<\/p>\n<p>In his 2026 NFL free agency preview last week, NFL insider Greg Auman projected Samuel to sign with the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/dallas-cowboys\/\" title=\"Dallas Cowboys\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"167447\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dallas Cowboys<\/a> this March.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSamuel, 26, is a tempting reclamation project, limited to 10 games over the last two seasons due to a shoulder injury, but a late-season cameo with the Steelers showed promise,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/stories\/nfl\/2026-nfl-free-agency-top-100-players-available-potential-fits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">wrote Auman<\/a>. \u201cSamuel once had three interceptions in one playoff game against the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/jacksonville-jaguars\/\" title=\"Jaguars\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"167451\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jaguars<\/a>, and his first three years in the league netted six interceptions and consistent play.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCould he land with the <a class=\"entity\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/nfl\/dallas-cowboys-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cowboys<\/a> and his old <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/los-angeles-chargers\/\" title=\"Chargers\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"167448\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chargers<\/a> position coach, Derrick Ansley?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Including the playoffs, Samuel played in seven games for the Steelers. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/S\/SamuAs00\/gamelog\/2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">He started<\/a> three of them \u2014 Weeks 16-17 when the team was dealing with cornerback injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Depending on who returns for the Steelers at cornerback, though, Samuel could project as a starter in Pittsburgh next season.<\/p>\n<p>In six regular season games, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/S\/SamuAs00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">Samuel posted<\/a> 10 combined tackles, one pass defense and an interception. He has 38 pass defenses and seven interceptions in 56 career NFL games.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/dmholcomb\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dave Holcomb<\/a> is a sports reporter covering the NFL and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Pittsburgh Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions. Originally from Pittsburgh, Holcomb has covered college and professional sports for outlets including FanSided, Rotowire and Yardbarker.  <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/dmholcomb\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More about Dave Holcomb<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Steelers\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty NFL insider Greg Aumen projected Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Asante Samuel Jr. to sign with the Dallas Cowboys&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-114949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-pittsburgh","9":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","10":"tag-pittsburgh-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}