The Pittsburgh Steelers’ season came to a screeching halt in the Wild Card round once again, and a significant portion of the roster may have played its final game in black and gold. The Steelers have 23 pending unrestricted free agents (UFA) and another five that fall under the restricted free agent (RFA) or exclusive rights free agent (ERFA) buckets. That’s about half of a 53-man roster to figure out between now and free agency in March.
Here is the list, put together by our Dave Bryan on X.
This list of 28 total players is slightly longer than last year’s 24 total free agents. Of those 24 last year, just eight ended up being a part of the 2025 team.
It’s already being widely talked about, but the future of the quarterback position will once again be up in the air. It’s not quite as bad as last year where Pittsburgh was scheduled to have zero quarterbacks under contract, but Rodgers and Thompson will both become free agents. That leaves Mason Rudolph and Will Howard on the roster with plenty to figure out at football’s most important position.
The WR room is also set to experience large turnover. Thielen, Miller, Valdes-Scantling and Austin are all scheduled to hit the UFA market. That leaves just DK Metcalf, Ben Skowronek and Roman Wilson in the room. They are going to need to invest heavily in the position in free agency, and most importantly, the draft.
The priciest options, based on current APY, come with Rodgers, Dugger, Seumalo and Thielen. It’s possible that three of those four players could retire, and we will see what happens with Dugger. DeShon Elliott’s return makes him less necessary, though they need to continue adding safety depth one way or another.
Then there is the bucket of players that they absolutely must try to retain. That includes Gainwell, Samuel, Pierre, Otomewo, and I would argue Heyward. That is the team MVP, two promising corners, a cheap defensive lineman that overperformed his role, and a niche role player that plays special teams.
Killebrew is worth retaining if healthy, but he suffered a season-ending injury at 32 years old. Will he be good to go at 33 for another contract? He probably won’t be healthy by the time they give out contracts, so that decision may come later in the offseason, if at all. He is a special teams captain, so he could definitely make a return.
Who else should the Steelers look to retain? Perhaps they could make a play on Austin to help stabilize the WR room. He stepped up in Week 18 in the biggest moment, but was invisible in the playoff game other than a couple near plays that never came to fruition. Waitman is up for debate. He had probably the best game of his Steelers tenure in the playoffs, but has largely been inconsistent. Some of the offensive linemen could see another cheap contract to help fill out the depth in that room, especially on the offseason 90-man roster.
As for the RFAs, there aren’t any notable tender candidates. Otomewo and Waitman are the biggest names, but RFA tenders might be too pricey. The Steelers could still look to re-sign them through traditional methods, however. Slade is the only exclusive rights guy. They could bring him back on a tender for the minimum amount associated with his number of credited seasons, but that isn’t a given.
Most of the Steelers’ free agents on this list won’t be back for 2026, marking another offseason of significant roster churn. That is what happens when they scramble to field a competitive roster of mostly veteran players every year. Pittsburgh’s roster was once again among the oldest in the league.
Dave Bryan will have a more in-depth look at each player in his annual primer series.