The Steelers and defensive end Tyson Alualu have agreed to an extension, according to Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (on Twitter). The new two-year attachment will keep Alualu under contract through the 2020 season. 
Alualu spent his first seven seasons with the Jaguars before signing with the Steelers in 2017. The 31-year-old (32 in May) has since appeared in 31 games (seven starts) for the Steelers. In ’17, he logged four sacks, but had zero sacks last season and a career-low 22 tackles.
Alualu’s unimpressive stat line may have led him to re-up with Pittsburgh rather than testing the open market. He also played in just 311 snaps, so he didn’t have a ton of film for other teams to review. The advanced metrics weren’t keen on Alualu in 2018 either, though Pro Football Focus has never given him a great score.
Good enough to last the better part of a decade in the NFL. Darn good considering the average career is like 2-3 years.
Alualu gets a bad rap as being a first round flop for the Jaguars, but it isn’t deserved IMO. Absolutely no team other than the Jags had him rated to go 10th overall in that draft, and then they kept changing defensive schemes and moving him around. He’s been a solid NFL player, just not a star like you usually want 1st round picks to be.
If nothing else, it saves having to draft a depth defensive in the late rounds. It also signals that the team is continuing to shy away from a true nose tackle and going with more versatile linemen.
He was really good in 2017, not as much last year, but he’s still the best depth lineman the Steelers have and this is a good move for them. It won’t at all prevent the team from possibly drafting more depth for the D-line since the other 2 backups are becoming free agents and Alualu is 32.