While nothing is official yet, the Pittsburgh Steelers appear to have made their decisions on their restricted free agents. Yesterday word leaked that place kicker that the Steelers had placed a 2nd round restricted free agent Chris Boswell, a move that goes a long way to ensuring that Chris Boswell will be kicking in Pittsburgh in 2018.
- The Steelers have also placed an original round tender on Anthony Chickillo and opted not to tender Eli Rogers.
Neither move comes as a great surprise. Anthony Chickillo has shown great promise as a backup linebacker and has improved in each year with the Steelers. With three years in the league, Chickillo has made 5.5 sacks in 38 games and just 9 starts. For comparison’s sake, that’s only a half sack less that Jarvis Jones managed in 50 games and 35 starts.
- Anthony Chickillo has also shown that he can start at both outside linebacker slots.
Steelers placed an original round restricted free agent tender on Anthony Chickillo . Photo Credit: David Richard, AP via PennLive.com
That gives the Steelers a solid “Next man up” behind Bud Dupree and T.J. Watt. The Steelers drafted Anthony Chickillo in the 6th round of the 2015 NFL Draft, which means that any team wanting to sign Chickillo would have to give up a 6th round pick to obtain his services and the Steelers would retain the right of first refusal.
- An original round tender on a player who has as much “upside” as Chickillo carries a certain amount of risk for the Steelers, but it’s a wise gamble on their part.
No team is going to throw money at Chickillo, and if they do the Steelers can use a 6th round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft as they currently do not have one of their own.
#Steelers tender RFAs K Chris Boswell (2nd round tender) & OLB Anthony Chickillo (original round tender), but do not tender WR Eli Rogers.
There is no forgone conclusion that Rogers won't be back, just that his ACL apparently isn't worth a $1.9M gamble.— Ben Anderson (@BenAnderson58) March 13, 2018
The Steelers apparent decision not to tender Eli Rogers amounts to perhaps a slight surprise, but tendering Rogers would tie up close to two million dollars in salary cap space with no assurance that Rogers would be ready for the start to the season due to the ACL he suffered in the playoff loss to the Jaguars.
- The harsh reality is that no other team is going to make a run at signing Rogers, so there’s little incentive to protect him.
Thus far there’s been no word on the Steelers other two restricted free agents, Fitzgerald Toussaint and Greg Ducre (who? Yeah we asked that too, click here for more on Ducre) and for these young players no news is not good news as the Steelers will not (and should not) tender either man.
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