The Steelers will sign defensive back Morgan Burnett, according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com (on Twitter). It’s a three-year deal worth close to $14.5MM, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link).
Burnett just wrapped up a four-year, $24.75MM deal with the Packers and he was said to be seeking a deal worth more than $8.5MM per year at one point. He fell short of that goal, but he still did well considering how stagnant the free agent safety market has been this year.
In eight years with the Packers, Burnett logged snaps at cornerback, free safety, and even linebacker. Heading into free agency, the Bears and Browns had some interest, but it’s not clear if they ever made offers to him. Ultimately, Burnett chose the Steelers because he wanted the chance to play for two historic franchises that also value veteran leadership, Fowler hears (on Twitter).
With the Steelers, Burnett seems likely to take over at one of the starting safety spots in place of Mike Mitchell. He’ll also help fill in some gaps at cornerback and free safety now that Will Gay is out of the picture.
Burnett, 29, has been an effective and versatile player throughout his career, but injuries have been an issue. He has not played a full season since 2012 and he has missed ten regular season games over the past three seasons.
News of Burnett signing with the Steelers was first reported by former Packer James Jones (Twitter link).
Anyone know how much it is per year?
He never logged even 1 snap as a free saftey. Ever.
you went back and checked every snap he ever took in his entire career? very impressive work sir!
Mr. Links is referring to his PFR page. He’s listed as FS/SS in several seasons.
Steelers are looking to move Davis to free.. Burnett will play on the strong side as he has through his career.
I’m sure it’s over 8. The Steelers over paid for this guy.
They usually never fail with signing players so he must be what they are looking for
Never is a strong word choice here, I feel like the steeler missed pretty hard on Green (TE) not too long ago
Green had injury issues but I agree that was a failure.
Good job finding it happened once. He said usually never fail. Good job trying to nitpick everything though! Get a life
As you sit here and nitpick comments. You can’t make this stuff up!
Green would have been successful if he stayed healthy
I guarantee it’s not over 8 and they didn’t over pay.
My guy the article says 14 million in 3 years. Simple math bro it’s only a little over 4 million a year, not 8 a year.
But he didn’t
Glad he’s not with the Pack anymore.
Besides signing Blount this is best news in what is an embarrassing free agency for Detroit.
Hope GB at least tried to match that offer; they will miss this great player.
Great player? You must be one of those NFL analysts who don’t have the time to devote to understanding which players on a single team are valuable…so they pretend to know about all 32. Burnett is average…at best.
Average league wide, yes. HOF caliber compared to the rest of the GB secondary. If GB had a chance to resign him at $5M/year I would imagine they would have. Guessing there is more to the story.
He was GREAT for GB.
link to packers.com
Here’s some stats to trigger your memory Mr. TwentyForty.