{"id":814620,"date":"2026-03-16T03:11:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/814620\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T03:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:11:14","slug":"kenneth-gainwell-reveals-why-he-left-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/814620\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenneth Gainwell reveals why he left Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">PITTSBURGH \u2014 This article originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/\">SteelersNOW.com.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The Pittsburgh Steelers lost their team MVP <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/kenneth-gainwell\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kenneth Gainwell<\/a> in free agency to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers earlier this week. Gainwell signed a two-year, $14 million with Tampa. Gainwell is the first Steelers\u2019 MVP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/nfl\/profootballtalk\/rumor-mill\/news\/steelers-face-the-loss-of-team-mvp-kenneth-gainwell-in-free-agency#\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">to make an immediate exit in free agency<\/a> since quarterback Neil O\u2019Donnell left for the New York Jets in 1996.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">When speaking with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iDTrQizGGr4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tampa Bay media<\/a> on Thursday, Gainwell explained why he left the Steelers for the Bucs. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cIt was a great option for me,\u201d Gainwell said. \u201cI wanted to be here last year, but you know, I am just happy to be here now. It was a great opportunity for me back in the South where I am from and just come here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Gainwell totaled 1,656 all-purpose yards last season, a figure that ranked sixth in the AFC. Spotrac tabbed Gainwell as having the market for a two-year, $5.9 million contract, which Todd Bowles\u2019 team obviously surpassed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/kenneth-gainwell-reveals-why-he-left-steelers\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/kenneth-gainwell-reveals-why-he-left-steelers\/\">Click here to read more from SteelersNOW.com.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 This article originally appeared on SteelersNOW.com. The Pittsburgh Steelers lost their team MVP Kenneth Gainwell in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[265,7,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-814620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-american-football","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116236667130436881","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814620","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=814620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}