Aug. 15: The Jags are paying $3.65MM of Schobert’s 2021 pay, as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reports. That is exactly half of Schobert’s $7MM base salary plus $300K in per-game roster bonuses. Schobert is also converting $2.36MM of his remaining salary into a signing bonus in order to decrease his cap charge on Pittsburgh’s 2021 books.
Schobert’s non-guaranteed salaries of $8.75MM, $10.25MM, and $10.75MM from 2022-24 will remain unchanged.
Aug. 12: Joe Schobert is headed back to the AFC North. The Jaguars are trading the veteran linebacker to the Steelers, according to NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero (on Twitter). The Steelers will send a 2022 sixth-round pick to the Jags to complete this deal, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
Schobert will end up having spent just one season in Jacksonville, with the team’s new regime moving in a different direction. The Steelers will pick up the sixth-year vet’s five-year, $53.75MM contract. This addition comes a few weeks after longtime Pittsburgh inside linebacker Vince Williams announced his retirement.
The Steelers are plenty familiar with Schobert, who worked as a Browns starter for three seasons prior to his March 2020 departure for Jacksonville. Schobert led the NFL with 144 tackles in 2017, earning him a Pro Bowl nod, and he led the Browns in stops in 2018 and ’19 as well. Schobert, 27, paced the Jags in tackles in 2020, with 141, but the effort came for a team that capped a 15-game losing streak that produced the No. 1 overall pick. That led Trevor Lawrence and Urban Meyer to Jacksonville, where changes are taking place.
Pittsburgh has Devin Bush returning from a torn ACL; Schobert will provide the team with a proven starter alongside its 2019 first-round pick. A former fourth-round pick out of Wisconsin, Schobert is set to earn $7MM in base salary this year. This move will hand the Jaguars a few million in dead-money charges, but the team leads the NFL in cap space as of Thursday.
Mike Tomlin has been high on Schobert’s coverage ability for a while, per ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler (via Twitter). Pro Football Focus did not view Schobert as a plus coverage ‘backer in 2020, but he graded in the top 15 overall at the position in 2018. Schobert will soon adjust to his fourth defensive system in four seasons. Of course, that was already the case with the Jaguars retooling their staff under Meyer.
Schobert and Myles Jack resided as the most productive players in the Jags’ lineup last season, with numerous backups joining them in the lineup as the season careened off course. The team has since signed Damien Wilson and used a fourth-round pick on Jordan Smith at linebacker. They also added ex-Alabama standout Dylan Moses as a UDFA, though he remains on the team’s NFI list.
Bold Take Pod’s Eric Dilla was the first to report a trade was in the works (Twitter link).
They had no cap money few weeks ago and now aquire him. What a joke. Even Saints go from 30 million over cap to being under again. Crazy
David decastro’s released helped them big time with that. Not to mention they will be trimming down once regular season inches closer, and also the jags took a few million of in due to dead money.
They had 12 mil going into this deal. Forget that Decastro was cut and other moves.
They got an extra million back after Williams retired.
A lot of loopholes. They can convert signing bonus money, among other things. Look at what the Cowboys and Chiefs did.
NICE!!
Need secondary help pitt!!
Chill they have the best safety in the game
Pits have a great defence, aging QB, solid young RB, couple quality WRers but no o line.
Add ineffective special teams to the list and you’ve got a perfect scouting report right there.
Boswell is pretty solid
I’d say you’re a bit optimistic about their quality receivers by listing them in the plural.
Diontae, Claypool and JuJu is a pretty damn good trio
All camp the Steelers have been running drills focusing on LBs covering WR, TE, and RB and the LBs have been getting destroyed, Spillane in particular. This moves Spillane into a backup role where he’s better suited. Hopefully the contract isn’t a burden in the future.
Steelers are getting a guy who can consistently deliver about 140 tackles a year so what’s not to like?
Allowing about 75% of the passes in his area.
Getting 140 tackles in a season is a little less impressive when 90% of them are past the LOS as well.
Joe is a LB not a lineman so expecting a lot of tackles for minus yards is unrealistic. The rules restrict defenders to such a great extent that passes in the 10 yard range will always have a high rate of completion.
Schobert was also on an overall terrible defense last year with exactly no pressure up front nor any run stopping ability. With no ability to create gaps, TFL will be nonexistent. His prior years showed much stronger coverage grades. I’m not sure how he will look in the Steelers’ system after playing in a more coverage oriented 4-3 base MLB in his best years, but I think overall this is a good addition. Schobert is a smart player who has covered well in the past, and is a good locker room contributor who should have some motivation to face a division rival.
Thank goodness. When Jones went down and Spillane had to start covering RB’s and TE’s last seasons the D couldn’t stop anyone. Pittsburgh’s D relies on a MLB who can cover. That was what happened when Shazier went down that one season too.
Jones?
Jones=Bush
Forget it. He’s rolling
Watt, Heyward, Tuitt, and Highsmith applying pressure with Bush, Schobert and Alualu up the middle is a really nice front 7 to have in front of Minkah.
Since Watt still needs to get paid, I’m guessing this move guarantees Ben is done with the Steelers after this year.
Can’t believe they got him for a 6th Round pick
So basically a 1 year deal. They’ve added Turner, Ingram and Schobert on one year deals. Gives them talent this year and still cap room for next to resign the core
Dayam them Steelers really going for it dis year