Steelers Decline CB Artie Burns’ Fifth-Year Option

Gerry Dulac confirms that the Steelers have, in fact, declined to pick up CB Artie Burns‘ fifth-year option. 

The expectation was that Pittsburgh was not going to exercise their option on Burns, so this shouldn’t come as a big surprise.

Burns, 24, is a former first-round pick of the Steelers back in 2016. He’s currently entering the final year of his four-year, $9.59 million contract and stands to make a base salary of $1.75 million over the remainder of his contract.

Burns will be an unrestricted free agent in 2020.

In 2018, Burns appeared in all 16 games for the Steelers and recorded 21 tackles, one forced fumble, no interceptions, one pass defense and a safety.