Holding no hard feelings from contract nontender, James Pierre happy to remain with Steelers
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Be it the advice he’s absorbed from coach Mike Tomlin or the counsel he actively sought from now-ex teammate Cameron Sutton, James Pierre is adhering to a belief that he has to go with the flow in this crazy business that is professional football.
Pierre is back for a fourth summer with the Pittsburgh Steelers — but after six days in limbo via a procedural move that cost him half his salary.
“Just talking to Cam Sutton during the process, he just said to keep my head high,” Pierre said of his somewhat-tumultuous March. “Just get back to some building and just get back to work. That’s what it’s mainly about, just getting back to work, staying around an opportunity, staying around the guys.
“When Pittsburgh called (back), I was ready to get back in the building.”
That call back came March 21, less than a week into NFL free agency — and, more germane to Pierre — after a league deadline for teams to tender contract offers to their restricted free agents.
The Steelers elected not to do that with Pierre, deciding the ability to hold his rights was not worth the $2.6 million guaranteed price tag. So Pierre became an unrestricted free agent.
But when the Steelers came to him six days later with an offer of $1.3 million for one year, Pierre took it.
“I don’t get into that stuff,” Pierre said when asked if there were any lingering hard feelings. “I just want to play ball at the end of the day, so that’s what I was focusing on: just playing ball.”
Pierre has played plenty of ball for the Steelers since joining them as an undrafted rookie in 2020. In fact, he’s appeared in all 50 regular-season games the team has played in that time.
That includes six starts and roughly 30% of their defensive snaps over the past two years. But while at times Pierre has had a role on the defense, it’s often been fleeting and temporary. Instead, it’s been more on special teams where Pierre has contributed — and that is expected to continue in 2023 for a team that this spring signed two free-agent cornerbacks and drafted two others.
“Never get comfortable — that’s one thing ‘Coach T’ always teaches us,” Pierre said. “‘Never get comfortable or get complacent. Every day get better.’ And just every day I come in, I am gonna get better, just being on the field.”
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