Steelers Now
The Pittsburgh Steelers have released outside linebacker Preston Smith, the team announced on Friday, an expected move that will come with significant salary-cap savings.
Smith, 32, joined the Steelers at the trade deadline in a trade from the Green Bay Packers. His contract at the time ran through the end of the 2026 season, with salaries of $13.4 million in 2025 and $14.1 million in 2026.
Though Smith had been a starter with the Packers, he was used as a reserve for the Steelers, slotting in behind starters T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith and backup Nick Herbig in the team’s edge rusher rotation.
Smith played in eight games for the Steelers after the trade deadline, recording 13 tackles, three tackles for loss, two quarterback hits and two sacks. He also had one fumble recovery. In nine games before the trade with the Packers, Smith has 19 tackles, 2.5 sacks, two tackles for loss and four quarterback hits. He finished 2023 with 48 tackles, eight sacks, four tackles for a loss and 21 quarterback hits.
His most productive season came in 2019, when he recorded 12 sacks in 16 games. Smith had eight or more sacks six times in his first nine seasons and has 68.5 sacks in his NFL career.
The Steelers sent their own seventh-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft to Green Bay in exchange for Smith. They have two more picks in this seventh round in this April’s draft, which came to Pittsburgh as part of the Kenny Pickett trade to the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Steelers already had about $40 million in offseason salary cap space before the move, and will now have over $50 million in space for general manager Omar Khan to work with as he approaches the start of free agency on March 10.
