Steelers LB Ryan Shazier still wants to play, but pending free agency complicates that
In Ryan Shazier’s story, the rules might get in the way of a logical solution for all parties.
Shazier, the Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker who suffered a spinal cord injury in 2017, still wants to play football according to owner Art Rooney II, via the Steelers’ site. However, he isn’t ready to resume football activities and will be a free agent in March.
And to facilitate Shazier working back to the field as a player, the Steelers would have to sign him as a player, Rooney said.
Given it’s far from a certainty that Shazier ever plays again, one can see how this becomes complicated.
Ryan Shazier wants to keep playing
Shazier has worked some with the Steelers scouts and coaches when he was recovering last year. But he was already under contract; the Steelers honored his rookie deal, which will expire at the start of the league year in March.
Rooney gave an update on where the situation stands.
“Ryan, I believe, still intends to continue to rehab with the intention of trying to come back and play, and so to the extent that he wants to do that, we’re open to working that out,” Rooney said, according to Steelers.com. “There are some technicalities about somebody going from staff to player. So, at this point as I said, I think his goal is to continue to be a player, and so we’ll have to address it as time goes on and figure out how that works. He would have to have a contract.”
It gets tricky. While it would make logical sense for the Steelers to have Shazier stay on with some coaching title while he continues to rehab, the NFL doesn’t want to open up the loophole of teams stashing rehabbing players on the coaching staff.
Steelers hope to keep Shazier around
The Steelers could sign Shazier to a minimum salary and use a roster spot for him through the offseason. The team has handled the situation very well after Shazier’s frightening injury and long rehabilitation.
There’s little clarity about the real possibility of Shazier ever playing again, however. Other than Rooney saying Shazier still wants to play, there hasn’t been an extensive update on his physical condition in a while. The Steelers would know better than anyone else.
There will be plenty of interesting stories in NFL free agency this season, and Shazier will be an unexpected one.
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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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