{"id":721875,"date":"2026-02-01T17:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T17:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/721875\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T17:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T17:38:15","slug":"steelers-best-worst-free-agent-signing-named-by-pff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/721875\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers Best, Worst Free Agent Signing Named By PFF"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers weren\u2019t very active in free agency last season. Still, the team found a diamond in the rough with RB Kenneth Gainwell. He earned the title of team MVP, and the team is looking to keep him in Pittsburgh<\/a>. On the opposite end, the Steelers thought they were solidifying their secondary with the signing of CB Darius Slay. But they ended up cutting him following Week 13 after he struggled immensely. Pro Football Focus\u2019 Bradley Locker named the best and worst free agent signings<\/a> for every team. He named Gainwell as Pittsburgh\u2019s best, and Slay as worst.<\/p>\n

Locker called Gainwell an \u201cunexpected engine\u201d for Pittsburgh\u2019s offense. With the Steelers\u2019 offense predicated on creating yards after the catch, Gainwell was valuable as a receiver and also ran the ball well. Gainwell had over 10 carries in a game three times. In all three of those games, he had 80 or more yards. With Jaylen Warren injured, he started in Week 14 and had 19 carries for 99 yards and two touchdowns. He had 10 carries for 92 yards in Week 12 against the Bears, and 13 carries for 80 yards in Week 15 against the Dolphins.<\/p>\n

He was a consistent bright spot for an offense that struggled at times and became a favorite of QB Aaron Rodgers. Even though Warren served as Pittsburgh\u2019s lead back, Gainwell got plenty of opportunities. The two of them became a strong tandem.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Steelers signed Slay to be their No. 2 cornerback. But his lack of speed showed up far too many times, and his tackling was inconsistent. He couldn\u2019t keep up in coverage, and after being a healthy scratch in the Steelers\u2019 Week 13 loss to the Bills, the team waived him. He didn\u2019t play for the rest of this season following his release. The Bills claimed him off waivers, but he refused to report to his new team.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh\u2019s cornerback plan largely fell apart as the team moved Jalen Ramsey to safety during the season. The only one of Pittsburgh\u2019s projected starting three cornerbacks who stuck at the position was Joey Porter Jr. He put together the best season of his career and looks to be the team\u2019s top cornerback.<\/p>\n

While the Slay experiment wasn\u2019t successful, the Steelers got positive contributions from James Pierre. Pierre and Asante Samuel Jr. could form the future core of the team\u2019s cornerback room, along with Porter, if the Steelers re-sign these impending free agents. So the silver lining for the Steelers was that they got unexpected contributions from Pierre as Slay struggled.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers weren\u2019t very active in free agency last season. Still, the team found a diamond in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[10051,9313,7,14451,6,3252,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":["post-721875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-bradley-locker","tag-darius-slay","tag-football","tag-kenneth-gainwell","tag-nfl","tag-pff","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-pittsburghsteelers","tag-steelers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115996597265386117","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721875","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=721875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}