When the Steelers saw several veterans leave for free agency in Bud Dupree, Alejandro Villanueva and Steven Nelson, the return of Tyson Alualu was a sigh of relief for the team's defensive line depth.
Alualu agreed to terms with Jacksonville in March for a contract that would've sent him back to the team that originally drafted him, until circumstances made him reconsider.
The story on how that happened centered around the pandemic and Alualu unexpectedly testing positive for the coronavirus.
"I was supposed to fly out to Jacksonville the next day," Alualu explained. "I had family in town, went in and got tested and came out positive for COVID. So then I wasn't able to fly out and sign the contract. Throughout the whole process, even before I agreed to any terms, my teammates and coach (Karl) Dunbar were calling and checking on me telling me to stay. Me and my wife had conversations about what choice we wanted to make. After agreeing to the terms in Jacksonville, we then thought staying here was best for our family."
Alualu spent seven years playing for the Jaguars after being the tenth overall selection of the 2010 NFL Draft. But the past four seasons he's been with the Steelers playing behind Cam Heyward and Stephon Tuitt on the defensive line. During that time he's totaled 140 tackles, 16 tackles for loss and seven sacks for the Steelers across 62 games and 22 starts.
"It was stressful," Alualu said. "Me and my family knew we wanted to stay here in Pittsburgh but we weren't reaching an agreement and I felt going back to (Jacksonville) for more money and back where I started was a better option. But then I got more time to think about wanting to stay in Pittsburgh. I talked to some of my teammates here and decided to switch over. It's nothing Jacksonville did to change my mind. I wanted to stay here in Pittsburgh and things just kind of worked out that way."
But it wasn't just decisions about being on the field that drove Alualu and his wife to their final decision to stay in Pittsburgh. Alualu still had ties to Jacksonville that didn't make his decision to stay in Pittsburgh easy. Alualu sold his house in Jacksonville recently but admitted his decision to not return to Jacksonville hurt people he still had strong personal relationships with despite his time in Pittsburgh.
Still, a big factor in his decision was the effort of the Steelers to show how much he would've been missed.
"I did have a place in Jacksonville," Alualu said. "That was our second home, but we had just sold it late last year. That did play a factor, considering if we had to start over if we moved back. But it was really my teammates here, they made me feel wanted. They told me they wanted me back and they needed me back. And I wanted to stay in Pittsburgh. I'm grateful I'm still a Steeler and doing what I love in a place that I love."
And in returning to the Steelers, Alualu finds himself in a different situation with his defensive line group playing a different role than years past. After the retirement of Maurkice Pouncey and the departure of Alejandro Villanueva just a year after Ramon Foster's retirement, the Steelers offensive line was no longer full of long-tenured players outside of David DeCastro.
34, Alualu is the second-oldest player on the team behind Ben Roethlisberger. And the third-oldest player on the team is fellow defensive lineman Heyward, who's 32. On a team with a very young receiving corps, a rookie starting running back, a much younger offensive line with several defensive stars in their early-to-mid twenties, the Steelers defensive line plays a different role of setting the tone of expectations for younger players.
"We're used to seeing our offensive line be that scrappy veteran group," Alualu said. "Now it's a lot of young guys with Dave leading them now. Now we're trying to be the anchor, take over and set the example they've left for us as the veteran group. Hopefully we can set the tone for the team on the field and in the locker room getting guys to buy into what it means to be a Steeler."