Elandon Roberts plans to end his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers — though maybe not immediately. Although he’s entering his ninth season, he still has plenty of playing time left, which also means he’ll be a starter in 2024. What happens after that? We’ll see, but he didn’t sign with the Steelers as a free agent by accident.
Elandon Roberts, a sixth-round pick of the New England Patriots in 2016, told Cameron Heyward that his first free agency period was easy. He already knew where he wanted to go, so he just had to wait for the call. He followed Brian Flores to the Miami Dolphins, where he spent three seasons. But when he became a free agent again in 2023, it was a different story for him. There was more at stake at that stage of his NFL life.
“That was the most stressful part because now it was time to find someone who would fit,” Roberts said on the “Not Just Football” podcast. “I was at the point where I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going into my eighth year, do I just take the one with the most money or do I take the one that’s a perfect fit?’ Because you know if you get into those years and you pick the wrong team just because of the money, you’re out of the league the next year just because you didn’t pick the right one. So it was just about the fit.”
Many players don’t even get a third contract, including those with clear NFL talent. Often, that’s because they chose the wrong contract by opting for the bigger deal. I could list a list of players whose careers plummeted after signing high-profile contracts due to fraud. But we don’t really have to, and we don’t have to go far – just look at how Cameron Sutton struggled with the Detroit Lions’ commitment last year. Elandon Roberts, however, knew the Steelers would be a natural fit for him.
“I had the teams in my head and thought, ‘They’d be a perfect fit,’ so Mike (Tomlin) and Omar (Khan) came in,” Roberts recalled. “It had to be Thursday morning because I was like, ‘Man, let’s go for it.’ Because I already knew it was a perfect fit. I had other teams in mind, but it just wasn’t a fit. It didn’t make sense. My linebacker style in particular didn’t make sense to teams. When they called, it was a no-brainer.”
Roberts is right that it is Thursday, or in other words, the third official day of free agency. He didn’t sign a huge contract, but he is in an organization and a team that fits him. I think there is no doubt that he belongs here and is already an undisputed leader.
As you can imagine, Elandon Roberts didn’t elaborate on what other offers he might have received from other teams. I’ll take his implicit word that he could have made more elsewhere. But he knew then and he knows now where he belongs. The only thing he’s missing is Vince Williams’ Stone Cold vest.
