Steelers re-sign Harrison to 2-year deal
By Dale Lolley
Staff writer
dlolley@observer-reporter.com
INDIANAPOLIS – Having taken care of the contracts of running back Le’Veon Bell and wide receiver Antonio Brown Monday, the Steelers turned their attention to their impending free agents.
General Manager Kevin Colbert said Wednesday the team began reaching out to the agents of its potential free agents to see what those players want when the free agency period begins March 9.
Apparently, the team was OK with outside linebacker James Harrison’s asking price. The Steelers signed their all-time sack leader to a two-year contract extension worth $3.5 million.
Harrison, 38, said he wasn’t interested in testing free agency.
“It was easy,” Harrison told Steelers.com. “That is what both parties wanted and we were able to come to an agreement.
“It’s home. It’s the only place that I really wanted to be. It’s where my family is. It’s a great organization.”
Harrison earned $1.5 million in 2016 in the final year of a two-year, $2.75-million deal he signed in 2015. He has earned $41 million over his career.
He started the final seven games last season and recorded 53 tackles, five sacks and two forced fumbles.
The five sacks moved him past Jason Gildon as the Steelers’ all-time leader in sacks, which became an official statistic in 1982, with 79.5. He added 2.5 sacks in the postseason to tie LaMarr Woodley for the most playoff sacks for the Steelers with 11.
The NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2008, Harrison originally signed with the Steelers as an undrafted free agent in 2002. He was released in a salary cap move prior to the 2013 season and spent one year in Cincinnati, announcing his retirement after that year.
But the Steelers coaxed him out of retirement early in the 2014 season after Jarvis Jones suffered an injury and Harrison has been a key part of the team’s resurgence the past three seasons.
“I want to get a Lombardi,” said Harrison of his motivation to continue playing. “I want to get another Super Bowl. That is the biggest thing I want to accomplish. The other thing would be, I want to prove anybody wrong who doubts me.”
Jones, who will become a free agent next week, was supposed to be Harrison’s replacement but that didn’t work out. The Steelers are in Indianapolis at the NFL Draft Combine this week again hoping to find his eventual replacement.
Colbert said edge rushers are one of the deepest positions in this year’s draft and last week the Steelers were awarded a compensatory pick in the third round, giving them four picks in the first 105 selections.
“It actually can change your mindset going into free agency, because you could go into this thing saying, ‘We need to get five players and we have three picks and maybe you have to go into free agency more.'” Colbert said. “With four picks in the first three rounds, albeit a low pick in the third round, we should have a better chance to get a player that maybe it affects what we do in free agency or the urgency of free agency.”
Odds and end zones
Colbert said the decision to make Brown the league’s highest-paid receiver earlier this week was a no-brainer. “To me, you reward your best players,” Colbert said of the five-year, $72.7-million deal given to Brown. … The NFL set the franchise tag totals Wednesday. Bell will be paid $12.12 million if he and the Steelers don’t work out a long-term deal. … Colbert said no decision has been made on whether Bell will have surgery on a sports hernia he suffered in the AFC Championship against New England. But Colbert said the decision will be made soon. … The Steelers began meeting with potential draft picks Wednesday night, meeting with eight players. They can meet with 60 players over the course of the combine, which ends next week.