With just a few more hours remaining before the start of the 2017 free agent signing period, no early signings appear to be imminent for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Despite several reports over the course of the last week that the Steelers are interested in signing Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick, that appears very unlikely to happen.
According to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com on Thursday, the Steelers have no plans to sign Kirkpatrick and especially not at his perceived market value of $10 million per season.
Fowler reports the Steelers were “in on” Kirkpatrick early on, but that’s hard to fathom being as his market price has probably been $10 million a season or greater from the start.
Early Thursday it was reported that the New England Patriots are expected to sign Buffalo Bills free agent cornerback Stephon Gilmore to a multi-year contract that will average roughly $14 million a season and that figures to be the top of the market at the position heading into the start of the new league year.
While it’s unclear still if the Patriots will ultimately re-sign soon-to-be free agent cornerback Logan Ryan in the coming hours, one could easily speculate that his market value will be similar to that of Kirkpatrick’s.
The Steelers reportedly have some sort of interest in signing Ryan, but it won’t come as a huge surprise if they ultimately don’t.
