The Steelers released cornerback Steven Nelson a week after re-signing Cam Sutton to a two-year contract last month.
And Nelson was taken aback by his release.
In messages sent to me Tuesday night, Nelson says the team's move was strictly about money.
"They promised Cam, meaning they would let me go bc they can’t keep me at a high number nobody ever called me and told me that," Nelson told me via direct message.
Nelson, 28, had been set to count just over $14 million against the Steelers' salary cap in 2021, with $8.25 million of that being base salary. He was in the final season of a three-year, $25.5 million contract signed in 2019.
In two seasons with the Steelers, Nelson had 109 tackles, three interceptions and 17 pass defenses, teaming with Joe Haden to give the team one of its best cornerback duos in years.
Nelson said earlier in the day, in a SiriusXM Radio interview, that he was seeking an extension with the Steelers that would have brought his 2021 cap hit down and kept him in Pittsburgh. But the team was not interested in going that route.
“I felt, and I also my extension felt that we were due an extension due to the fact that I had out-played my current contract for the past two years,” Nelson told Pat Kirwin and Jim Miller on their show.
"For whatever reason, the Steelers wanted to move a different way and thought I was, I guess, expendable, in my prime, via trade,” Nelson continued. “It came down to me being traded, or being released, and I just want to make it very clear ... that there was never a discussion with me being able to take a pay cut. I was never even given that opportunity to take a pay cut."
Nelson taking a pay cut, however, seems unlikely, however, given his desire for an extension. And, as reported here last week, had he stayed with the team, the Steelers would have wanted him to compete with Sutton for the starting job opposite Haden.
In his messages to me, Nelson also denied he was told that, and suggested it wouldn't have been in the cards, anyway.
"Why would the highest-paid corner ride the bench?" Nelson said in a DM.
"Believe me, that’s not what I was told so get your facts straight I’ve never ran from any comp and no knock on Cam but I’m the best, was best corner on that team. This is simply called a cap casualty situation."
Nelson told Kirwin and Miller he has 10 to 15 teams interested in signing him.
