The Steelers picked up the fifth-year option on star linebacker T.J. Watt last week. That was not a surprise to anyone considering he was a finalist for NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2019.
Watt was one of just over half of the players selected in the first-round of the 2017 draft who had his fifth-year option picked up. Another, Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey, recently worked out a contract extension.
But more than a dozen other players taken in the first round in 2017 didn't have their fifth-year option picked up. That included half of the players selected in the top 10 of that draft, as Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky, 49ers defensive lineman Solomon Thomas, Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette, Titans wide receiver Corey Davis and Bengals wide receiver John Ross didn't have their options picked up.
That doesn't mean all of those players are busts. Their respective teams just didn't feel they were worth the salary increase they would have gotten had those options been picked up.
For example, Trubisky would have seen his salary increase to nearly $25 million. He's been a three-year starter, but the Bears added Nick Foles in the offseason to offer competition.
Davis has been a good -- not great -- receiver for the Titans. But they couldn't justify paying him more than $15 million in 2021 given what he has been to this point in his career.
The Steelers will have a similarly tough decision to make a year from now. And they'll not only have to make one decision, they'll have to make two with both Minkah Fitzpatrick and Terrell Edmunds being eligible for the fifth-year option.
Since the league first began using the fifth-year option as part of the last CBA in 2011, the Steelers have only not picked up the fifth-year option on two former first-round draft picks, linebacker Jarvis Jones and cornerback Artie Burns.
Edmunds has outperformed both of those two in his first two seasons. But he could be the third Steelers' first-round draft pick to not have his option picked up.
And it wouldn't be because he's a bust. It would be because he's a victim of circumstance, with his option coming up at the same time as Fitzpatrick.
Per the new CBA ratified earlier this year, fifth-year options moving forward will be based on the player's performance in the first three seasons of his career.
Fitzpatrick earned All-Pro honors in his second season, his first with the Steelers after coming over via a trade with the Dolphins, who selected him 11th in the 2018 draft.
The Steelers will obviously pick up his fifth-year option unless he completely falls on his face in 2020, which would be a shock.
Edmunds, meanwhile, has started 31 of a possible 32 games since joining the Steelers as the 28th pick in 2018. He has played 2,002 snaps on defense and another 290 on special teams. Of the players selected ahead of him, only Colts guard Quenton Nelson, Raiders offensive tackle Kolton Miller and Fitzpatrick also have appeared in all 32 games.
And his 2,292 snaps played are more than any other player selected in the draft with the exception of Nelson -- not just the first round, but the draft as a whole.
Of players selected in that draft, his 126 total tackles rank ninth, while according to Pro Football Reference's career approximate value rating, he's tied for 28th in that metric in that draft with 12 points.
He's not, as some people have suggested, a bust.
But he also seems unlikely to get that fifth-year option picked up given the fact the Steelers are going to be in a situation where they're not only going to see Fitzpatrick get a big salary increase, but the contracts of Watt and others also will be up.
Again, it's nothing new. If you look at the players from that 2017 draft that had their option picked up, seven of the final 13 players selected in the first round either didn't have their option picked up or have already been released.
Edmunds seems likely to join that group in 2021. It probably would have gone differently for him if the Steelers hadn't traded for Fitzpatrick, but they did.
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