The Pittsburgh Steelers announced Monday that they’ve officially placed LB Ryan Shazier on the reserve/pup list.
This officially ends Shazier’s 2019 season. He’ll make $500,000 for the 2019 season.
Shazier has said he still wants another shot at playing in the NFL again, despite suffering a serious spinal injury back in 2017 and later undergoing spinal stabilization surgery.
“I definitely want to play,” Shazier said. “I try to tell people at the end of the day, just because I got hurt, doesn’t mean I lost the love of the game of football. I love football so much. I just care about the game. I really feel like the game has taken me places I never expected to go. I am putting everything into it. I feel like I was the best linebacker in the league. I don’t want to leave that as my legacy. I feel like I have so much to show.”
Pittsburgh has said that they plan to work with Shazier. Although, the team addressed the linebacker position last week by trading up for Devin Bush.
Shazier, 26, is a former first-round pick of the Steelers back in 2014. He was in the final year of his four-year, $9.5 million contract and set to make a base salary of $1,284,292 for the 2016 season when the Steelers picked up his fifth-year option.
Shazier’s contract actually tolled the for the 2019 season.
In 2017, Shazier appeared in 11 games and recorded 87 tackles, three interceptions, a fumble recovery, two forced fumbles and 10 pass defenses. Pro Football Focus had him rated as the No. 8 inside linebacker out of 87 qualifying players at the time of his injury.
Looking for the latest NFL Insider News & Rumors?
Be sure to follow NFL Trade Rumors on TWITTER and FACEBOOK for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!
