With Ryan Shazier‘s football future up in the air, the Steelers have a clear need at inside linebacker. On Thursday morning, Steelers GM Kevin Colbert said that signing an ILB in free agency is “a potential,” (Twitter link via Ed Bouchette of the Post-Gazette). He also indicated that the team likely will continue to restructure contracts in order to create salary cap room. 
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As PFR’s Sam Robinson noted in his rundown of the Steelers’ top three offseason needs, inside linebacker is a huge need for Pittsburgh this year. The Steelers have fortified the group through the draft in recent years, using a first-round choice on linebacker in four of the past five drafts. Shazier and T.J. Watt panned out, but Bud Dupree cannot be counted on as a high-end contributor and Jarvis Jones is no longer on the roster. Going with a proven commodity over a first-round pick may be more expensive, but it’s probably the right move for Pittsburgh with other areas to address at No. 28 overall.
The Steelers recently carved out $13.5MM in cap space by converting the 2018 base salaries of David DeCastro and Stephon Tuitt into roster and signing bonuses and there are opportunities to go even further. Wide receiver Antonio Brown ($7.875MM), defensive end Cameron Heyward ($9MM), cornerback Joe Haden ($9MM), Shazier ($8.72MM) and center Maurkice Pouncey ($7MM) all have sizable salaries that can be restructured. With that additional space, the Steelers should be able to ink a new multi-year agreement with running back Le’Veon Bell and also add an impact linebacker.
You can expect a guy like Mike Mitchell to be gone as well.
I see them cutting Mitchell and using the money to sign a ILB and draft a safety. Maybe add a vet there too.
The thing in the case of Mitchell is that they don’t save any cap space cutting him later versus cutting him now, and they don’t have anyone on the roster really capable of replacing him. So while they may indeed end up releasing Mitchell, it will be later instead of sooner.
Hopefully. He runs his mouth and is one of the biggest liabilities on the field
They’re not cutting Mitchell. No chance.
OK…what ILB are available in free agency?
Bowman, Preston Brown, Zach Brown, Posluszny, Todd Davis
Avery Williamson
Derrick Johnson? Not a bad stop-gap option.
Too old, too many injuries. But then again it’s better than what they have.
I wish everyone would stop saying Shazier’s football future is up in the air or anything similar as it woujld take a literal miracle for him to ever be cleared. I know it’s hard to accept that a great player in his prime is done but 3 months out and he’s still having trouble standing, football is meaningless in the grand scheme of things for him.
If he’s doing well enough to even keep a candle lit for his future in football, that means he can live a normal life. Shoot for the moon, miss, still catch a star.
Im a Ravens fan and i hated seeing him go down. It’s fun when both teams have great players going against each other. He was a beast but it’s highly unlikely he ever plays again. Bowman would be a great replacement but it might take a bit to get him since he wants to stay in Cali
Bowman doesn’t have the speed to be a 3 down back anymore and would be a poor replacement for Shazier in my opinion. Their defense against the run suffered because they couldn’t stop guys from getting around the edge, not because they were pounding it up the middle.
Clay Matthews will be available Lol ♂️
Instead of training new guys train the ones you have since they know the system and besides they got you to the playoffs. Guys like LJ Fort and Mat can improve with more reps and various scenarios thrown at them to broaden their awareness. No one gets better riding a bench……