Market Value Of Steelers David DeCastro Goes Up With Kelechi Osemele Playing Guard

Just after the new league year started, I wrote about the Oakland Raiders signing Kelechi Osemele and how his new deal may or may not impact the market value of Pittsburgh Steelers guard David DeCastro depending on the position he wound up playing for his new team. Now that the Raiders are set to re-sign left tackle Donald Penn, you can probably count on Osemele playing guard for them.

Osemele signed a five year, $58.5 million contract with the Raiders last week and received $25.4 million in guaranteed base salary and roster bonuses in the first two years as part of the deal. At $11.7 million per season, Osemele is now easily the highest paid guard in the league.

So, what does this mean for DeCastro? Well, we already knew that the Steelers former first-round draft pick would likely command $9 million a season as part of his new contract being as the team picked up his $8.07 million option last offseason. With Osemele’s deal now in place and with him likely playing guard, DeCastro could ask for an even higher annual average in his new deal.

While the Steelers aren’t likely to match Osemele’s $11.7 million average when it comes to DeCastro, they might get the Stanford product close to it. That would likely mean somewhere around $10 million a season. A few years ago, the Steelers signed center Maurkice Pouncey to a a five year contract extension worth $44,136,625 and 29.5% of that deal was guaranteed. I would expect DeCastro’s new contract to easily surpass that.

Being as the Steelers signed defensive end Cameron Heyward to his new deal last July, that’s probably about the time the Steelers might get a new extension done with DeCastro.

Osemele Contract