INDIANAPOLIS -- The Steelers have been cautiously optimistic but guarded in their response regarding a potential return by defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt in 2022 after he missed the entire 2021 season.
Tuesday, Kevin Colbert threw caution to the wind when speaking about the potential for Tuitt to return next season.
"Absolutely," Colbert replied when I asked him at the NFL Scouting Combine here in Indianapolis if Tuitt had expressed an interest in playing football again next season.
"He wanted to play last year. He had a knee injury he had to work his way through and obviously the family situation that hurt along those lines. But we respected what he had to deal with. And we tried to support him the best as possible."
Tuitt, 28, missed the entire 2021 season after dealing with a knee issue that was aggravated in training camp as he worked his way back into shape. He had gotten out of shape while being unable to work out because of the knee issue and while mourning the loss of his brother, Richard Bartlett III, in a hit-and-run accident in Georgia last June.
Tuitt worked on the side, often with T.J. Watt, throughout training camp. But he was placed on injured reserve before the regular season began and did not play a game.
That caused many to wonder if Tuitt would return to play in 2022, the final year of a 5-year, $60-million contract. The Steelers last August converted some of Tuitt's salary to signing bonus and also added three voidable years to the end of his deal to lower his 2021 salary cap hit to $8.6 million.
He's slated to count $13.975 million against their cap this season. The Steelers would only see a savings of a little over $4 million against their salary cap this season if Tuitt were released or retired.
But Colbert's statement Tuesday makes that sound as if that's not in the cards.
"We're excited to see what the next step is for Stephon," Colbert said. "We're respectful of where he is, and we'll continue to monitor that and see where it leads. Stephon went through a tough year, and we respect that and understood that. And where it happens for the next step, we don't know. We'll always leave that door open for him."
With Tuitt out for the year and nose tackle Tyson Alualu playing just five quarters last season, the Steelers had issues stopping the run, finishing dead last in the NFL while allowing 146.1 yards rushing per game.
The did lead the NFL in sacks for a league-record fifth consecutive season, but without Alualu and Tuitt, the defense wasn't nearly as formidable as it had been in the previous two seasons when it finished as a top-5 unit in each season.
Tuitt in 2020 was one of just three players in the AFC to reach double digits in sacks, joining Watt and Browns defensive end Myles Garrett.
Getting Tuitt back would lessen the need for the Steelers to address their defensive line depth, either in the draft in April or in free agency, which begins March 16.
Colbert also said:
• Those voidable years the team used in contracts with Tuitt, Ben Roethlisberger, JuJu Smith-Schuster and a couple of others to help create salary cap space in 2021 won't be something the team necessarily looks to do moving forward.
"It was an usual year with the low cap because of the pandemic and the reduced revenue," Colbert said. "We had to be open to new ideas. Will we use those types of ideas going forward? I think that’s doubtful."
Because of the voidable years, the Steelers will carry an addition $22 million in dead money in 2022.
• Smith-Schuster will be a free agent again this offseason. The Steelers signed him to a one-year deal worth $8 million that included voidable years.
But Smith-Schuster suffered a shoulder injury in Week 5 that sidelined him for the remainder of the regular season. He did, however, return for the team's playoff loss to the Chiefs, catching five passes for 26 yards.
He'll now, however, test free agency again for a second time. James Washington and Ray-Ray McCloud also are slated to be unrestricted free agents.
"We always admire JuJu. We think he’s 32 and he’s 26," Colbert said. "He’s that veteran in a very young room. What he did at the end of the year, coming back and putting his free-agency issues aside, said I’m going to try to help win a playoff game, it was huge."
• Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians, a longtime Steelers assistant coach, praised Mike Tomlin's addition of former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores as senior-defensive assistant/linebackers coach two weeks ago.
"He needs to be a head coach in this league," Arians said of Flores. "Obviously, Mike did a great job bringing him on.”
Flores was fired as the Dolphins' head coach after three years despite posting back-to-back winning seasons. He then filed a lawsuit against the Dolphins, Giants and Broncos, along with the NFL, over its minority hiring practices.
