Contract Details for Three New Steelers Revealed
The contract details for new Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Sebastian Joseph-Day , safety Jaquan Brisker and running back Rico Dowdle were revealed by NFL insider Aaron Wilson on Wednesday.
Joseph-Day’s two-year deal for $11 million includes a $4.7 million signing bonus. His salaries in 2026 and 2027 will be $1.3 million and $5 million.
Joseph-Day is a 6-foot-4, 310-pound defesnive lineman who will be in his eighth NFL season this fall. He spent the last two seasons with the Tennessee Titans, where he started 22 games over the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
He recorded 44 tackles in 2024, with three tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, six quarterback hits and a pass defended. Last season, he had 41 tackles, six tackles for loss, two sacks, six quarterback hits and a fumble recovery.
Before his time with Tennessee, Joseph-Day spent four seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, who drafted him in the sixth round of the 2018 NFL Draft out of Rutgers. He was a three-year starter for the Rams, starting 38 games in four seasons. He tore his pectoral muscle in the middle of the 2021 season, spending most the year on the injured reserve list. He was activated from the IR just in time to play in Super Bowl LVI, as the Rams won over the Cincinnati Bengals .
Following that performance, Joseph-Day signed a three-year, $24 million free agent contract with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2022. He was named a team captain and started 30 games over two seasons, but was surprisingly released by the Chargers on Dec. 22, 2023. He caught on with the San Francisco 49ers for the end of the 2023 season, playing in his second Super Bowl, before signing with the Titans.
Brisker’s deal is for one year, $5.5 million. It includes a $4.285 million signing bonus and a salary of $1.215 million.
Brisker, who turns 27 next month, spent the first four seasons of his NFL career with the Chicago Bears , starting all 52 games he played for them. He racked up four interceptions and 342 total tackles during that span.
Brisker played high school football at Gateway High School in Monroeville, then starred collegiately at Lackawanna and Penn State before being selected in the second round (No. 48 overall) of the 2022 NFL Draft.
With signing a one-year deal, Brisker said he’s betting on himself.
Dowdle signed a two-year, $12.5 million deal. It includes a $5 million signing bonus and salaries of $1.25 million and $6 million in each season.
Dowdle spent five seasons under Mike McCarthy in Dallas from 2020-2024. It was McCarthy who gave the undrafted RB out of South Carolina his first chance in the NFL.
“It goes all the way back to when I came out of South Carolina. Coach McCarthy and the Cowboys, they was able to give me my first opportunity in the NFL. I’ve built that relationship with him, I was there with him in Dallas for what, five years? So yeah, just building that relationship with him, and it definitely played a major role in my decision to come here to Pittsburgh,” Dowdle said during his introductory press conference at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on Friday. “I know my running backs coach [ Ramon Chinyoung ]. I was with him in Dallas.”
Dowdle prides himself on being a smashmouth running back. He thinks McCarthy’s run schemes are perfect for his style of running.
“We want to get it through the run game,” Dowdle said of McCarthy’s offense during his introductory press conference on Friday. “And want to establish everything at the line of scrimmage. Being physical, that’s the one thing he always harps on, being the most physical team out there.”
Dowdle is coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons. He really turned heads last year in his only season in Carolina.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Contract Details for Three New Steelers Revealed
Related Headlines
