Steelers Will Not Extend G James Daniels In 2024
As Cameron Heyward extension uncertainty looms, it does not appear the Steelers have ruled out a fourth contract with their stalwart defensive lineman. It does, however, look like they are passing on another agreement with one of their interior O-line starters — for 2024, at least.
The topic of a James Daniels extension surfaced earlier this offseason, but the two-year Pittsburgh starter effectively shut this issue down by confirming (via The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly) the team does not plan to extend him before the season. Considering the Steelers do not do in-season extensions, Daniels is set to play out his contract year.
Daniels should have an opportunity to cash in once again as a free agent in 2025; despite this being the former Bears second-rounder’s seventh NFL season, he will only be 27 by the time the market opens next year. The Steelers confirming they want to have him play out the three-year, $26.5MM deal to which he is attached raises the stakes for the Iowa product.
The Steelers moved on from the two other veteran O-linemen they signed in 2022 by cutting both Chukwuma Okorafor and Mason Cole in February. Those moves came months after the team traded Kevin Dotson to the Rams. Dotson has since fetched a three-year, $48MM deal to stay in Los Angeles. This bodes well for Daniels, whose 2025 departure could leave the Steelers vulnerable at guard.
Pittsburgh, which went 27 years between first-round tackle investments before drafting Broderick Jones in 2023, has used Round 1 choices on tackles in back-to-back years. The team is set at those spots, and second-rounder Zach Frazier will be viewed as likely to take over at center. The team signed Isaac Seumalo to a three-year, $24MM deal in 2023. The former Eagles blocker is going into his age-31 season. With Daniels four years younger, he profiles as a pricier option on his third contract.
Pro Football Focus rated the Iowa alum 33rd among guards last season and 24th in his Steelers debut. ESPN’s pass block win rate metric slotted Daniels ninth among guards in 2022. The six-year NFL starter has missed just two games as a Steeler. Given the number of eight-figure-per-year guard paydays that came to pass in March, Daniels has a big opportunity ahead. Counting Landon Dickerson‘s extension, six guards — Dickerson, Dotson, Robert Hunt, Jonah Jackson, Damien Lewis, Jon Runyan Jr. — all signed deals at or north of $10MM per year this offseason. The salary cap will rise once again next year.
The Steelers used a fourth-round pick on Mason McCormick this year. Although the team found a gem in Dotson out of Round 4 back in 2020, it would be interesting if it was already earmarking a spot for McCormick in 2025. The Steelers hold exclusive negotiating rights with Daniels until March 2025, and while the Rams did use those well by coming to terms with Dotson before free agency started, Daniels playing out his contract year would put him in a position to raise his value and hit free agency.
As it stands, the Steelers appear prepared to let that happen. While the team has a low-cost quarterback situation for 2024, it has been tied to interest in extensions for Russell Wilson and/or Justin Fields. One of the QBs almost definitely will not be back, but the Steelers may need to factor in a bigger quarterback contract to its calculous next year. With several big-ticket deals on the books for defenders, that complicates matters for players like Daniels.
Latest On Steelers’ Offensive Line
The Steelers offensive line in 2023 was pretty decent, allowing the ninth-least sacks in the NFL and ranking as the 13th-best rushing offense. Still, Pittsburgh opted to make a number of moves towards an upgrade on their offensive front for the 2024 season. In fact, the Steelers utilized their first two draft picks (and three of seven) this year on linemen, and all three could be in line to start as rookies. 
The only position that lost a starter on the line this year was center. The team watched their starter of the last two seasons, Mason Cole, depart in free agency. Cole graded out as the league’s 29th-best center out of 36 graded players at the position last season, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required). They have a couple options to replace Cole, including veteran Nate Herbig. Herbig hasn’t played center much at the college or NFL level, but he has versatile experience all over the line and could be utilized there in a pinch. The favorite to start, though, is the second-round rookie out of West Virginia, Zach Frazier.
At guard things are a bit more interesting. Like Frazier, fourth-round rookie guard out of South Dakota State Mason McCormick is currently slotted to start on the depth chart of the team’s website. McCormick is listed as the starting left guard, presumably because that’s the only position he played in college. The team’s returning left guard, Isaac Seumalo, graded out as the team’s best offensive lineman in 2023, though, per PFF. So, unless the team benches their top returning lineman, Seumalo or McCormick will need to move over to the right side to compete with James Daniels. Seumalo has experience starting at right guard in the past, so it makes the most sense to move him over.
At tackle, the Steelers utilized their first-round pick to bring in Washington lineman Troy Fautanu. Many projected Fautanu’s skillset to fit best at guard or center at the NFL-level, though he spent most of his time at tackle during college in Seattle. Pittsburgh believes that he has the ability to stay at tackle and start in the NFL. Pundits predict that last year’s rookie first-round pick Broderick Jones will remain at right tackle, where he played in 2023, putting Fautanu at left tackle to replace Dan Moore Jr. as the starter. According to Mark Kaboly of The Athletic, though, Fautanu has spent the first three days of organized team activities at right tackle behind Jones.
Kaboly doesn’t think Fautanu will stay as the backup at right tackle, though. More likely, with OTAs serving as the ideal time to mold and learn. This experience is the perfect opportunity for Fautanu to learn both positions in the event that he may have to move over to the right side and fill in for an injured Jones. It’s not uncommon for offensive lineman to need time to develop, but the Steelers likely didn’t use their first two draft picks on players they didn’t intend to start.
Things are still extremely early. The rookies are still finding their footing, and a number of camp battles are sure to ensue. The team even has plenty of time to sign a veteran free agent if they deem it necessary. Still, Pittsburgh has the potential to serve as a rare occasion in which we see three rookies starting across the offensive line.
We last saw that in 2020 when the Dolphins started Austin Jackson, Robert Hunt, and Solomon Kindley (their first-, second-, and fourth-round picks, respectively) as rookies. That Miami team improved their record from 5-11 the previous year to 10-6 despite the youth across the line. The Steelers may be hoping for a similar level of improvement.
Steelers View Troy Fautanu As Tackle; Team Eyeing James Daniels Extension?
Bringing in 11 offensive linemen on “30” visits, the Steelers did not mask their intentions in the first round. They ended up capitalizing on this tackle-rich draft class, selecting Washington’s Troy Fautanu at No. 20 overall.
Fautanu is the second straight tackle the Steelers have chosen in Round 1, as the team traded up for Broderick Jones (No. 14 overall) last year. Some teams viewed Fautanu as a player who will be a better guard, but Mike Tomlin said (via ESPN.com’s Brooke Pryor) the Steelers view their most recent addition as a player who can stick at tackle.
Daniel Jeremiah’s NFL.com big board slotted Fautanu 11th, and while some clubs envisioned the Washington alum as a player who will need to move inside, the longtime draft analyst does not. Some NFL personnel agree with this viewpoint; it would appear the Steelers are in this camp. This positions Fautanu as a player who will join Jones and Dan Moore at tackle. Moore is in a contract year, and the three-year starter appears set to be out of Pittsburgh by 2025 (at the latest) as a result of this pick.
The Steelers are believed to be ready to slide Jones from right to left tackle, his primary college position. This would open up the right side for Fautanu, who spent most of his college career at left tackle (with a few guard starts mixed in). If Jones moves over, the Steelers will be asking a left tackle — either Jones or Fautanu — to shift positions. The Steelers view Fautanu, despite his arrival six spots after where Jones was chosen last year, as a better prospect compared to the Georgia alum, The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly notes (subscription required). Trade options presented themselves for the Steelers, but they stood down due to the value they believed Fautanu can provide.
Fautanu figures to complement Pittsburgh’s guard tandem (James Daniels, Isaac Seumalo) rather than threaten one of the starters’ jobs, and Kaboly goes a step further by noting the team is likely to come to an extension agreement with Daniels before Week 1. Daniels is going into the final season of a three-year, $26.5MM deal.
Despite going into his seventh NFL season, Daniels will not turn 27 until September. The former Bears second-rounder would profile as a player who has several prime years remaining, making him a good candidate for a lucrative third contract. Pro Football Focus rated the Iowa alum 33rd among guards last season and 24th in his Steelers debut. Daniels has played both guard and center as a pro, though a Bears effort to install him at center did not last beyond the 2019 season. He has operated as the Steelers’ right guard for the past two seasons.
The Steelers have both Daniels and Semualo signed to deals south of $10MM per year; a Daniels extension would probably change that. With the Steelers having both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields on low-cost deals, more flexibility to spend exists. With two rookie-contract tackles in place (and no starter-caliber center on the roster as of yet), Daniels may be set to benefit soon. The Steelers do not negotiate extensions in-season, so Week 1 would double as a deadline for the team and the contract-year RG.
OL Notes: Giants, Radunz, Steelers, Brunskill
After fielding another below-average offensive line last season, one that saw key injuries reconfigure it early on in the campaign, the Giants loaded up on blockers this offseason. Newcomers Evan Neal, Mark Glowinski and Jon Feliciano are projected to start at right tackle, right guard and center, respectively. Andrew Thomas is the team’s unquestioned left tackle. That leaves left guard as the top competition area. Holdover Shane Lemieux appears to be the favorite for that job, via NJ.com’s Zack Rosenblatt, who notes the third-year player has been a full participant despite coming off a patellar tendon tear that cost him 16 games last season. Lemieux, who started down the stretch for the 2020 Giants and has received the first reps with the starters thus far, attempted to play through the severe knee injury in Week 1 but ended up missing the season’s remainder.
The Joe Schoen–Brian Daboll regime, however, brought in third-round pick Joshua Ezeudu (North Carolina). Although Max Garcia arrived this offseason as well, Rosenblatt adds the Giants view the eighth-year veteran as more of a backup. This sets up a Lemieux-Ezeudu left guard battle, one that will determine if the Giants have three or four new starters up front.
Here is the latest from the NFL’s O-line scene:
- The Titans lost two starters from their 2021 O-line — left guard Rodger Saffold and stopgap right tackle David Quessenberry — and are aiming to plug in former second-round pick Dillon Radunz. The North Dakota State product, who made just one start as a rookie, is vying for the team’s right tackle gig but also factors into the guard mix, Jim Wyatt of Titans.com offers. Radunz, chosen a year after would-be right tackle Isaiah Wilson became a quick bust, was a full-timer for the Bison from 2018-19 but lost the 2020 season due to the pandemic. The Titans used a third-round pick on Ohio State’s Nicholas Petit-Frere, representing another right tackle option. Third-year UDFA Aaron Brewer and ex-Seahawk Jamarco Jones are on the roster as left guard candidates.
- Daniel Brunskill has started 35 straight regular-season games for the 49ers, slotting primarily at right guard. The fourth-year veteran has shown an ability to fill in at all five O-line spots, and Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle notes the 49ers would prefer Brunskill as a super-sub rather than as the full-time starter. For this reality to unfold, the team would need a viable replacement. Jaylon Moore, a 2021 fifth-round pick who has moved inside from tackle, represents competition for the 49ers’ right guard position. Given Brunskill’s experience, benching him would be quite the gamble for a team that lost five-year left guard Laken Tomlinson in free agency and looks set to lose center Alex Mack to retirement.
- Steelers newcomers James Daniels and Mason Cole look set to play right guard and center, respectively, per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Ray Fittipaldo, leaving a competition between two 2021 starters at left guard. The Steelers following through on the rumored move of center Kendrick Green to guard, his primary college position, has created a competition between he and Kevin Dotson — a 13-game starter through two years. Pro Football Focus graded Dotson well as a rookie, albeit in a small sample size, but an ankle injury doomed his sophomore NFL season. Green started 15 games last year; PFF graded the rookie third-rounder as one of the league’s worst centers. Given a three-year, $15.75MM deal, Cole coming to Pittsburgh has led to Green’s position switch.
Steelers To Sign James Daniels
The Steelers have made another big splash in the offensive line market. The team is signing guard James Daniels to a three-year, $26.5MM contract, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero (Twitter link).
Daniels will see $8.75MM fully guaranteed on this deal, per Spotrac (on Twitter), essentially covering the 2022 season. His cap numbers come in at $4.1MM for 2022 before spiking to $11.1MM in each of the contract’s final two seasons.
[RELATED: Steelers To Re-Sign Chukwuma Okorafor]
The 24-year-old began his career with the Bears. He started 48 of 54 games during that four-year span, establishing himself as a serviceable starter. The former second round pick set a career high in terms of snaps played this past season, with 1,122.
2021 was also his best campaign from an analytical perspective. He earned a PFF grade of 71, making him a solid option in this year’s free agent market. In Pittsburgh, he will join a team that’s been in need of upgrades throughout the offensive front. He will also be re-joining former Bears teammate Mitch Trubisky, who is reportedly joining the Steelers to compete for the starting quarterback role. The pair spent three seasons together in Chicago.
This is the third notable move the Steelers have made regarding their o-line recently. They reached an agreement with Mason Cole yesterday, meaning the unit could look very different when the 2022 season begins. That will likely be a welcome sign for Pittsburgh, as the team continues to re-shape its offense in the post-Ben Roethlisberger era.
Panthers Expected To Let Matt Paradis Depart In Free Agency; Latest On FA Plans
As Joseph Person of The Athletic (subscription required) writes, the Panthers are likely to part ways with center Matt Paradis, who is eligible for free agency. Pat Elflein, who opened the 2021 season as Carolina’s left guard but who moved over to center following Paradis’ injury, is likely to continue as the starting pivot despite his struggles in that role.
Paradis, 32, signed a three-year, $27MM contract with the Panthers in March 2019, and he started every game for the club from Week 1 of the 2019 season through Week 9 of the 2021 campaign. Unfortunately, a torn ACL suffered in that Week 9 contest ended his walk year prematurely, and it leaves him in a less-than-desirable position as he hits the open market for the second time in his career (interestingly, when he hooked on with the Panthers in 2019, he was coming off a serious leg injury that he sustained in November 2018, which may have limited his earnings then in the same way that his recent ACL tear will limit his earnings now).
Still, given his track record as a solid starter and the fact that he has been quite durable except when he’s playing out a contract year, he should garner a fair amount of attention from teams in need of a center. The Bengals, Jets, and Jaguars are all rumored to be interested in Bucs center Ryan Jensen, and Tampa Bay wants to retain its four-year starter. The losers of the Jensen sweepstakes could turn to Paradis, and the Ravens, who may be unable to afford a new contract for Bradley Bozeman, could also be in play.
The Panthers, meanwhile, will have plenty of work to do on the O-line. Luckily for them, this year’s college class is deep at the LT position, and Carolina could net a high-quality prospect even if it trades down from its No. 6 overall selection. In a separate piece (subscription required), Person opines that the Panthers will not be in the market for a high-priced free agent like longtime division-rival Terron Armstead, so the draft would be the place to nab a blindside blocker. Person does expect the team to sign a free agent guard, and while Brandon Scherff and Laken Tomlinson may be too pricey, old friend Andrew Norwell or Bears OL James Daniels could be viable targets.
In related news, Person says the Panthers do want edge defender Haason Reddick back, but only if the price is right. We recently heard that Reddick is likely to test the open market for the second year in a row. And while the club has not shut the door on a new contract for CB Stephon Gilmore, Person hears that the team is prioritizing a deal with fellow corner Donte Jackson, who is five years younger than Gilmore (both players are also eligible for free agency). GM Scott Fitterer is also doing his due diligence on available safeties.
Finally, the Panthers reportedly want to re-sign K Zane Gonzalez and may be eyeing P Pat O’Donnell as a replacement for Lachlan Edwards.
Bears Notes: Desai, Robinson, Massie, Skrine
Earlier this week, Sean Desai met with the media for the first time since being promoted to the role of defensive coordinator. While the 37-year-old will take over a defense that has ranked as a top-10 DVOA unit in each of the past three seasons, they’ve also seen some regression since peaking in 2018. However, Desai doesn’t believe the defensive needs a significant overhaul.
“I’m not a big car guy, so my analogies may not be great, but this is like a tune up,” Desai said (via the team’s website). “We’re going to refine some things and we’re going to make sure our players are playing to their strengths on a consistent basis and they’re going to buy into the system and the whys and the hows of why we’re doing certain things. But we’ve got a good defense. We’ve got really good players here.”
“There was some regression, and we’re going to overcome that,” Desai added. “But we’re going to do it in a positive way and we’re going to do it where the players are going to be able to shine through that defense. So I think we’ll build some depth and we’ll continue with our tough, physical mindset of play and do that over a 16- to 20-week season.”
Some more notes out of Chicago…
- CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora writes that the Bears are “prepared” to tag wideout Allen Robinson with the hope of eventually signing him to a long-term deal. Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune writes that it will be difficult to fit a franchised Robinson into a reduced 2021 cap, but the writer also admits that replacing Robinson would be a more daunting task.
- Speaking of the cap, Biggs provided some cost-cutting options for the Bears. The team could move on from right tackle Bobby Massie, although that would open a spot on the offensive line. Cornerback Buster Skrine could also lose his roster spot, especially since he has a $500K roster bonus due in March. Finally, Biggs also whether the front office will be receptive to paying tight end Jimmy Graham $7MM this season.
- As for restructured contracts, Biggs points to pass rusher Khalil Mack and safety Eddie Jackson, and he notes that the team could also extend cornerback Kyle Fuller. Alternatively, the team could look to retain free agents like Cairo Santos and Cordarrelle Patterson on low-money pacts.
- Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic passed along a few Bears players who have increased their 2021 salaries via proven performance escalators (Twitter links): defensive end Bilal Nichols (from $920K to $2.183MM) and guard James Daniels ($1.437MM to $2.183MM),. Their new salaries are contingent on the final 2021 cap number.
Minor NFL Transactions: 10/14/20
Here are Wednesday’s minor moves:
Chicago Bears
- Promoted: OL Sam Mustipher
- Placed on IR: G James Daniels
Cleveland Browns
- Promoted: CB Robert Jackson
New England Patriots
- Signed off Jaguars’ practice squad: DL Carl Davis
Tennessee Titans
- Activated from reserve/COVID-19 list: WR Cameron Batson, WR Adam Humphries
Washington Football Team
- Claimed (from Eagles): DE Casey Toohill
Bears G James Daniels Out For Season
1:10pm: Daniels did indeed suffer a torn pec last night, as Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network tweets. He will miss the rest of the season.
10:07am: The Bears improved to 4-1 by defeating the Buccaneers last night, but they may have lost a starting offensive lineman in the process. As Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network reported after the game, Chicago fears that left guard James Daniels suffered a season-ending pectoral injury (Twitter link).
As of this morning, head coach Matt Nagy did not have an update on Daniels’ condition (Twitter link via Jeff Dickerson of ESPN.com). Daniels is scheduled to have an MRI today, so we will pass along those results as soon as we have them.
Although the Bears are near the bottom of the league in terms of total offense and points-per-game, their offensive front is actually performing pretty well as far as the advanced metrics are concerned. Football Outsiders pegs Chicago’s O-line as a top-10 unit in both run-blocking and pass protection, and any disruption to the group’s continuity will be unwelcome. For what it’s worth, Pro Football Focus thinks highly of Daniels’ personal run-blocking effort through the first few weeks of the season, though it’s less fond of his pass-blocking.
Daniels has become a fixture in the Bears’ starting lineup, having started the last 31 games for the club. He has also demonstrated some versatility, playing eight games at center in 2019 before switching back to guard.
The 2018 second-round pick is currently backed up by former UDFA Alex Bars, who has yet to record a start in his pro career.
Extra Points: McCoy, Cooper, Bears
Gerald McCoy spent nearly a decade with the Buccaneers, who have not made the playoffs since 2007. As a result, he is prioritizing a certain type of team as a first-time free agent. McCoy said he plans to sign with a contender, ESPN.com’s Josina Anderson reports.
“I want to win,” McCoy said. “I’m not worried about where I’m living. Wherever I got to go to win. … Everybody’s open.”
Thus far, the Browns, Ravens, Bengals, Colts and Panthers have emerged as McCoy suitors. The Browns and Ravens have received or will receive meetings, Cleveland’s occurring over the past two days and Baltimore’s set for Tuesday. The $11MM-AAV offer is believed to have come from a non-contending team. Despite the Browns’ NFL-long playoff drought (16 years), their offseason improvements have this year’s edition profiling as a playoff threat, joining the Ravens and Colts in that regard. Interestingly, the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots no longer appear to be interested in the six-time Pro Bowler.
Here is the latest from around the league:
- Julio Jones and the Falcons are engaged in contract negotiations, and these talks may well be impacting another NFC team’s re-up discussions with a No. 1 wideout. The Cowboys look to be under the impression Amari Cooper is waiting on the Jones deal before moving forward in his negotiation, Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tweets. The Cowboys and Cooper are at a stalemate presently, and although Cooper may not have much of a case to be paid more than Jones, the Alabama alums’ age difference (Jones is 30; Cooper will turn 25 next month) may bring their next prices closer together.
- The Bears are doing some rearranging up front. Former second-round picks Cody Whitehair and James Daniels are switching positions, with Whitehair set to slide to left guard and Daniels to center, J.J. Stankevitz of NBC Sports Chicago notes. A 2016 draftee, Whitehair has started all 48 games in his career and has spent most of that run as the Bears’ snapper. Whitehair played guard at Kansas State, while Daniels — a 2018 draft choice — was primarily a center at Iowa. Both played well last season in their old jobs, Whitehair grading as Pro Football Focus’ No. 10 center and Daniels ending his rookie year as PFF’s No. 29 guard.
- Additionally, Bears backup running back Taquan Mizzell is now a wide receiver, Stankevitz adds. Mizzell is also in his third Bears season; he only received nine carries in 2018.