The Steelers' patience with Bud Dupree has paid off in a big way.
The sixth-year outside linebacker, once the object of scorn from many Steelers fans, has become such an integral part of their defense, now many are trying to figure out a way for the Steelers to keep Dupree beyond this season. That includes the Steelers.
Dupree, 27, is playing on a franchise tag this season that pays him $15.8 million. And he's been worth every penny again this year.
It's a far cry from when many fans were upset when the Steelers picked up his fifth-year rookie option at $9.2 million for 2019.
Dupree has picked up where he left off last season, when he had a career-high 11.5 sacks, recording five sacks, 10 quarterback hits and four tackles for a loss in the Steelers' first five games. It's shown why the Steelers had faith in Dupree, a 2015 first-round draft pick, all along.
Dupree was a raw and rare athlete at the position when he joined the Steelers in 2015. Now, he's a complete outside linebacker.
"I always knew Bud was a special athlete, but you have to grow into being a great player, which he is," said teammate Cam Heyward. "I feel like every year, he’s continued to get better. He’s become a complete player. When you first get in the league, you’re still learning, learning the defense, learning where you thrive, where you need to get better. I think it just comes with your due diligence in trying to get better. The last four years, I’ve just seen Bud grow exponentially because of his hard work and his discipline."
How rare an athlete is Dupree?
Well, he's 6-foot-4, 270 pounds and ran a 4.56 40-yard dash with a 42-inch vertical jump at the NFL Scouting Combine. His size and speed are comparable to Titans' running back Derrick Henry, so much so Mike Tomlin joked this week the Steelers could use Dupree to simulate Henry as they prepare to face him this week.
"This is like Bud Dupree running the football," Tomlin said of Henry. "This guy gets into your secondary. It’s like trying to tackle a guy like Bud, except he is faster, obviously, than Bud."
Not by much. Henry was timed at 4.54 second in the 40, while his vertical jump was 37 inches.
But with fellow outside linebacker T.J. Watt heading into his fifth-year option contract year in 2021 -- when he'll be paid about $10.1 million -- can the Steelers somehow afford to keep Dupree next season as well? It's been a question on the minds of Steelers fans.
A long-term deal seems unlikely since the franchise tag puts the floor on any such deal between $17 to $20 million per year and would probably preclude the Steelers from also signing Watt to a long-term contract extension.
Placing the franchise tag on him again would put his 2021 contract at either the average of the top-five highest-paid players at his position or 120 percent of the 2020 franchise tag value. That means he would be guaranteed no less than $18.96 million in 2021 if the Steelers put the franchise tag on him again.
Could the Steelers, who figure to be well over the cap -- at least $20 million -- if it comes in at the $175 million floor somehow keep Dupree? Sure. But that would mean making some hard decisions elsewhere.
A contract extension of some type with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is a must. He's due to count for more than $40 million on next year's cap. And given his play this year and their lack of a replacement, the Steelers will be interested in keeping Roethlisberger in 2021 and beyond.
But that would create just a small chunk of what they would need to keep Dupree.
Essentially, they would be unable to re-sign any or most of their other impending free agents, which includes left guard Matt Feiler, wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, running back James Conner, left tackle Alejandro Villanueva, corners Mike Hilton and Cam Sutton, nose tackle Tyson Alualu and right tackle Zach Banner, among others.
The play of rookies Chase Claypool and Kevin Dotson might make allowing Smith-Schuster and Feiler to leave more palatable, but having two tackles, both slot corners and the starting nose tackle also go doesn't seem all that promising. And the same could be said of the play of linebacker Alex Highsmith, a third-round pick who was drafted as insurance if Dupree leaves. He has played well in his time on the field, as well.
The Steelers could place a transition tag on Dupree, but that would mean losing a potential third-round compensatory pick for him in 2022.
So, despite the fact the Steelers love what Dupree is doing on the field, the chances of him returning to Pittsburgh in 2021 seem highly unlikely unless the cap somehow miraculously comes in much closer to the $198 million it is this year.
That's still a possibility. As has been explained here before, neither the NFL nor the NFLPA wants to see the cap plummet nearly $25 million per team in 2021. That serves no purpose for either side. So, negotiations could take place after the season to ensure that doesn't happen.
But right now, the Steelers have to be moving forward with the idea that Dupree won't be with them in 2021, no matter how much they would like that to be the case, particularly Tomlin, who loves Dupree. The only way to keep him would be to perhaps move on from Watt after his rookie deal.
And no matter how much Tomlin loves Dupree, that's just not going to happen.
MORE STEELERS
• How poor has Dustin Colquitt's punting been this season? He's dead last in net average, though that's not all on him. But the Steelers knew they were rolling the dice when it came to changing out Jordan Berry for Colquitt. The 16-year veteran had seen his average, both net and gross, go down in each of the previous three seasons. But the Steelers had an opportunity to save about $1.2 million in salary cap space by releasing Jordan Berry and going with Colquitt as their punter. And I'm told the call to go that route came from the highest of levels within the organization. The team needed the cap space and any leftover cap space can be rolled over into next year's cap, which could be helpful. But in the meantime, the Steelers are dealing with a deficiency at punter -- one of the few consistent issues they've had -- at least for now. The Steelers did, however, bring Berry in for a workout earlier this week just to make sure he was staying in shape. -- Lolley
• The decision regarding who will be the defensive communicator on the field now with Devin Bush out for the remainder of the season will be an interesting one. One of the reasons the team moved on from Mark Barron -- they could have released Vince Williams instead -- was because they weren't enamored with his communication skills as the signal caller last season. In fact, they felt like many times, the quiet Barron wasn't relaying everything he needed to do from the sidelines. But Robert Spillane is not going to be a full-time player. And when the Steelers go to their dime defense, they might not want to keep Williams on the field, either, as the only linebacker. The team tried Watt in that role last season, but as he typically plays 80 to 85 percent of the snaps, he's not necessarily ideal to be the signal caller. The top candidates might be safety Minkah Fitzpatrick or cornerback Joe Haden. Both never leave the field and could probably do the job, though it would be unconventional to have a corner make the calls. If the Steelers don't go that route, Williams has the most experience doing it. And the team could use hand signals when it goes to the dime. The good thing is that the Steelers might not play a lot of dime against the Titans, who aren't a team that necessarily requires that package. -- Lolley
PENGUINS
• The pandemic-related revenue losses that led to the Penguins cutting the pay of some employees and furloughing others has cost a couple members of the scouting staff their positions. "We did (cut ties with) a couple of pro scouts," Jim Rutherford said. "They were on a part-time basis, but we haven't gotten rid of any full-time scouts." He did not identify the scouts who were let go, but two former NHL players -- Duane Sutter and Jay McClement -- who were added to the staff in 2019 no longer appear in the listing of scouts on the team's website. The Penguins, of course, aren't the only team that has eliminated some positions as a belt-tightening move, and Rutherford said "it's possible" they would consider hiring a scout who had been released by another club if the Penguins felt that person would be a good addition to the staff. -- Dave Molinari
• NHL general managers are scheduled to conduct a virtual meeting Friday, with any number of issues scheduled to come up for discussion. One that figures to get considerable attention is the idea of allowing the seven teams that failed to qualify for postseason play -- and thus, did not get a summer training camp that the other 24 did -- to have extra preparation time for the season ahead, whether it would be in the form of a stand-alone camp or simply a period of time tacked onto the beginning of preseason workouts for the rest of the league. On one level, that seems perfectly fair and logical; after all, two dozen teams -- presumably, the league's 24 best in 2019-20 -- had the benefit of some practice time the seven non-qualifiers did not. The reality, though, is none of the NHL's 31 teams have exactly the same personnel they did a few months ago, when preparations for the qualifying round and Stanley Cup playoffs got underway. What's more, by the time training camps get underway -- which conceivably might not happen until January, if then, depending on how the pandemic progresses -- just about every team will have been idle for an extended period. Rather than eliminating a disadvantage for teams that sat out the postseason, it will create one for the clubs that did compete then, Considering all of that, there's no justification for giving the non-qualifiers additional time to get ready for the 2020-21 season, although it seems fairly certain that the GMs will endorse doing so. -- Molinari
• It's a little early to focus on the 2021 expansion draft, considering how much uncertainty surrounds all the events that will precede it, but the Penguins seem to have avoided one problem they encountered when Vegas joined the league in 2017. Expansion rules allow teams to protect just one goaltender, and the Penguins had two -- Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray -- who could have been the No. 1 guy on most clubs. Ultimately, they opted to keep Murray, and the Golden Knights claimed Fleury, who promptly became the face of their franchise. Barring a dramatic change, Tristan Jarry, who supplanted Murray as the Penguins' go-to goalie, will be the one protected when the Kraken fills out its initial roster, and Casey DeSmith will be made available. DeSmith is signed through the 2021-22 season, so he already meets the key criterion of being under contract at the time of the draft. -- Molinari
PIRATES
• The odds are low he will go anywhere this year, but bench coach Don Kelly has interviewed for the Tigers’ managerial job, and the Red Sox reportedly have interest in him too. While the bench coach for a last-place team might not seem appealing as a managerial candidate on paper, Kelly checks a lot of boxes teams are looking for. Since retiring from playing in 2016, he has worked in scouting, player development and major-league coaching, and took on more responsibilities than a normal bench coach would with the Pirates this year. For example, he ran spring training and summer camp. It also helps that he’s well liked by players and spent nine years in the majors as a utility player. Right now, one of the few knocks on him is experience, having spent one year as the first base coach with the Astros and just 60 games with the Pirates. Being the Pirates’ bench coach isn’t the last stop of his career. A few years from now, he’s going to become a serious managerial candidate. -- Alex Stumpf
• While Adam Frazier and Jacob Stallings were nominated for Gold Gloves, Bryan Reynolds didn’t get a nod in left field, even though he probably should have. He made just 35 starts at the position, moving over to center field for the final weeks of the season, but he still led all National League left fielders in assists with four, and finished second in defensive runs saved (5) and defensive WAR (0.6). That might not be enough to win, but to get a nomination? It certainly is discussion worthy, especially since this year’s Gold Gloves will be awarded entirely on statistics. The reason for the change is coaches, who usually have the majority of the say in their vote, could did not get to face teams outside of the division and the adjacent league’s division, so they don’t have as good of a read on the rest of the league. Regardless, teams took notice of his arm as the season progressed, opting to not run as often. That is more important going forward. -- Stumpf
• The Pirates have an upcoming roster crunch and will need to remove at least nine players -- not including those on expiring contracts such as Keone Kela and Derek Holland -- from their 40-man roster within five days of the World Series ending. John Ryan Murphy is a safe bet to be one of the non-tenders, and the other catcher they signed last offseason, Luke Maile, is on the fringe too. He missed the entire regular season after fracturing his right index finger during summer camp, and was non-tendered by the Blue Jays last offseason after he hit .151 with a .440 OPS over 129 plate appearances. As for points in his favor, he has a good track record with Derek Shelton, working with him in their stops with the Rays and Blue Jays, and he is graded well as a defender, which complements Stallings. The Pirates obviously value defense first out of their catchers, and Maile will be one of the better gloves available. -- Stumpf