{"id":6995,"date":"2025-07-13T15:45:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T15:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/6995\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T15:45:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T15:45:04","slug":"pittsburgh-steelers-free-agent-named-biggest-bust-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/6995\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Steelers free agent named biggest bust candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> have been at the center of headlines all offseason. They\u2019ve made several noteworthy trades, including trading for DK Metcalf<\/a> in March and then trading away George Pickens<\/a> in May. They completed the trifecta by trading All-Pro safety Minkah Fitzpatrick<\/a> to the Miami Dolphins<\/a> in exchange for All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey<\/a> and Pro Bowl<\/a> tight end Jonnu Smith<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The trade now thrusts others into positions of higher expectations, one of those players being safety Juan Thornhill. The Steelers signed the former Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> and Cleveland Browns<\/a> safety this offseason, with the original thought being he\u2019d be the No. 3 safety. Now, however, he could find himself as the Week 1 starter. Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report<\/a> labels the veteran as the biggest bust candidate for the Steelers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Fitzpatrick may disappoint for the Dolphins, that doesn\u2019t mean the Steelers will find him easy to replace,\u201d Knox writes. \u201cThe top candidate to take over Fitzpatrick\u2019s role will be free-agent addition Juan Thornhill. He\u2019s unlikely, however, to play up to Fitzpatrick\u2019s Pro Bowl level. The 29-year-old has struggled to stay healthy in recent years and has allowed an opposing passer rating above 100.0 in five straight seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thornhill is coming off a respectable season with the Browns. Though he missed six games, he was still given a PFF grade of 65.5 and a coverage grade of 64.5, both of which ranked in the upper half of qualified safeties. Will he be as good as a prime Minkah Fitzpatrick? Almost certainly not. Plus, the Steelers could bring in another free agent, such as Justin Simmons or Julian Blackmon. Regardless, Thornhill can be a fine starter, especially with the talent around him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers have been at the center of headlines all offseason. They\u2019ve made several noteworthy trades, including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[7384,7388,7386,7387,5015,7390,7056,424,7385,349,7383,7392,7391,99,7389,1329,1596],"class_list":["post-6995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-agent","tag-behind","tag-biggest","tag-bust","tag-candidate","tag-curtain","tag-free","tag-front-page","tag-named","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-steelers-commentary","tag-pittsburgh-steelers-news","tag-sports","tag-steel","tag-steelers","tag-the"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}