{"id":813176,"date":"2026-03-15T05:27:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T05:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/813176\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T05:27:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T05:27:35","slug":"steelers-sign-explosive-starting-defensive-lineman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/813176\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers Sign Explosive Starting Defensive Lineman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"categories\"><a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/steelers-news\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers News<\/a>\u2022<a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/steelers-transactions\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers Transactions<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"788\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Syndication-The-Tennessean-27082312-scaled-e1773464363525.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium tpd-force-16x9-aspect-ratio wp-post-image\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Steelers Sebastian Joseph-Day\" decoding=\"sync\" loading=\"eager\"   fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Denny Simmons \/ The Tennessean \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The Pittsburgh Steelers have signed free agent defensive tackle <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/adamschefter\/status\/2032581568275870054?s=46\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Sebastian Joseph-Day<\/a> to a two-year contract, according to a report by Adam Schefter of ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>The Steelers and day have agreed to a two-year contract worth $11 million, with $6 million coming in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Joseph-Day is a 6-foot-4, 310-pound defesnive lineman who will be in his eighth NFL season this fall. He spent the last two seasons with the Tennessee Titans, where he started 22 games over the 2024 and 2025 seasons.<\/p>\n<p>He recorded 44 tackles in 2024, with three tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, six quarterback hits and a pass defended. Last season, he had 41 tackles, six tackles for loss, two sacks, six quarterback hits and a fumble recovery.<\/p>\n<p>Before his time with Tennessee, Joseph-Day spent four seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, who drafted him in the sixth round of the 2018 NFL Draft out of Rutgers. He was a three-year starter for the Rams, starting 38 games in four seasons. He tore his pectoral muscle in the middle of the 2021 season, spending most the year on the injured reserve list. He was activated from the IR just in time to play in Super Bowl LVI, as the Rams won over the Cincinnati Bengals.<\/p>\n<p>Following that performance, Joseph-Day signed a three-year, $24 million free agent contract with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2022. He was named a team captain and started 30 games over two seasons, but was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/39168451\/chargers-cut-dt-sebastian-joseph-day-14-starts-2023\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">surprisingly released<\/a> by the Chargers on Dec. 22, 2023. He caught on with the San Francisco 49ers for the end of the 2023 season, playing in his second Super Bowl, before signing with the Titans.<\/p>\n<p>A native of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, he was rated as a consensus three-star prospect and picked Rutgers over offers from UConn, Maryland and Temple. At Rutgers, he redshirted as a true freshman, played in three games in 2014 and was a rotational player in 2015 before becoming a two-year starter, playing mostly nose tackle.<\/p>\n<p>In pre-draft testing, he recored a 9.44 <a href=\"https:\/\/ras.football\/2020\/01\/20\/sebastian-joseph-ras\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Relative Athletic Score<\/a>, thanks to high end scores of 9-foot-4 in the broad jump, a 31.5-inch vertical and a 4.97-second 40-yard dash.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In his NFL career, Joseph-Day has played at nose tackle and defensive end in odd fronts and defensive tackle in even fronts, which makes him an option to fill in at multiple spots for the Steelers, where he will likely be the team\u2019s fourth defensive lineman behind <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/cam-heyward\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cam Heyward<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/keeanu-benton\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Keeanu Benton<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/derrick-harmon\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Derrick Harmon<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/pittsburgh-steelers\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/sebastian-joseph-day\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Sebastian Joseph-Day<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/steelers\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/top\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">top<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers News\u2022Steelers Transactions Denny Simmons \/ The Tennessean \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images The Pittsburgh Steelers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,6,520,57,2360,12134,426,3444],"class_list":{"0":"post-813176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-pittsburgh","11":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","12":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","13":"tag-sebastian-joseph-day","14":"tag-steelers","15":"tag-top"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116231540537913851","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813176","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=813176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}