{"id":208125,"date":"2025-07-15T04:50:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T04:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/208125\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T04:50:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T04:50:14","slug":"steelers-fa-target-explains-why-he-didnt-choose-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/208125\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers FA Target Explains Why He Didn’t Choose Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"SanSan Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk blocking Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt during a game on Sept. 12, 2023. — Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Pittsburgh Steelers\u00a0hosted 49ers All-Pro fullback Kyle Juszczyk<\/a> on a free-agent visit in March, but he left without a deal, and shortly after,\u00a0re-signed with San Francisco<\/a>. He recently revealed why he opted to return to the 49ers instead of starting fresh with the Steelers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a different experience,\u201d Juszczyk said<\/a>. \u201cIt was a chance to go look at a different team and I felt a lot of love from them. I got excited for a second about what possibly could be, about new beginnings and fitting into a new offense, all that type of stuff. And I genuinely enjoyed my time with Arthur Smith and Mike Tomlin so much. I have so much respect for those guys. But at the end of the day, it just wasn\u2019t enough to trump what I had in San Francisco. I just couldn\u2019t pull the plug.\u201d<\/p>\n

Juszczyk didn\u2019t just return to San Francisco, though. He also took a pay cut to do so.<\/p>\n

According to ESPN\u2019s Nick Wagoner, the Steelers made a better offer than the 49ers<\/a>, but Juszczyk chose to return to his former team anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cNine-time Pro Bowl fullback\u00a0Kyle Juszczyk\u00a0is returning to the\u00a0San Francisco 49ers\u00a0on a two-year, $8 million deal,\u201d\u00a0Wagoner wrote<\/a>. \u201cA source said Juszczyk took less than what the\u00a0Pittsburgh Steelers\u00a0were offering to return to San Francisco.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a tough loss for Pittsburgh, which is seemingly all in on trying to contend for a Super Bowl this season with one of the oldest rosters in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Juszczyk has been the gold standard at the fullback position over the last decade. He has made nine consecutive Pro Bowls as a fullback and is coming off a second-team All-Pro selection in 2024.<\/p>\n

He caught 19 passes for 200 yards and two touchdowns and rushed five times for 26 yards and a touchdown. Juszcyzk did turn 34 in April, but there have been no signs of decline.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: 49ers<\/a> Kyle Juszczyk<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> San Francisco 49ers<\/a> Steelers<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers News San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk blocking Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt during a game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[220,7,2867,6,520,57,2360,252,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-208125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-kyle-juszczyk","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","15":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","16":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114855452876156644","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}