Steelers, Tuitt agree to contract worth $61 million

PITTSBURGH – The Steelers believe they have had two bookend defensive ends to build around in Cam Heyward and Stephon Tuitt.
They are guaranteed to have that duo around for quite some time.
Tuitt was signed Saturday, hours before the team boarded buses for its regular-season opener Sunday at Cleveland, to a 6-year contract extension worth as much as $61 million.
The move was made possible because Heyward and the Steelers worked out a deal with his 2017 salary that converted it into signing bonus and freed up $3 million in cap space.
Now, the Steelers have two defensive ends with contracts that average nearly $10 million per season.
Heyward, 28, signed a six-year, $59.2-million contract extension in 2015.
The contract with Tuitt came together in the past week, beating the Steelers’ own deadline. Pittsburgh has had a long-standing policy that it does not negotiate new contracts once the regular season begins.
The Steelers have been busy in recent weeks, making trades for veteran tight end Vance McDonald and safety J.J. Wilcox and signing cornerback Joe Haden, spending a large portion of the $13 million of salary cap they had available.
It made some people wonder if they would have enough cap space remaining to get a contract completed with Tuitt.
“It’s easy to look at it that way for somebody who’s not paying attention to what’s important,” Tuitt said earlier this week. “What’s most important to me is going out there and getting better each day. I do want to win the Super Bowl. I want to be here with this team and win one, then go for a second.”
He’ll get plenty of chances with this contract, which runs through the 2022 season.
At 24, Tuitt heads into his fourth season with the Steelers with 32 career starts. The Steelers selected him in the second round of the 2015 draft.
The signing of Tuitt shows the Steelers believe he is poised for a breakout season. In three seasons, Tuitt has 108 tackles and 11 1/2 sacks, including four last year. He had 6 1/2 sacks in 2015, his first year as a starter.