With news that JPJ is waiting for the "guys upstairs" to figure out if he is playing week one, I thought it would be useful to review what the NFL collective bargaining agreement says about player participation, discipline that can arise from not playing, and the risks JPJ runs by holding out.

For background: I taught collective bargaining and contract administration at Penn State (We Are) for four years before moving to upstate, NY.

After Le'Veon Bell held out in 2018, the NFL negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement. In the new agreement, there are much stiffer penalties for players who hold out in both training camp and the regular season. Specifically, Article 8(1)(b) states (bolding mine):

A player shall not receive an Accrued Season for any League Year in which the player is under contract to a Club and in which (i) he failed to report to the Club’s preseason training camp on that player’s mandatory reporting date; or (ii) the player thereafter failed to perform his contract services for the Club for a material period of time, unless he demonstrates to the Impartial Arbitrator extreme personal hardship causing such failure to report or perform, such as severe illness or death in the family. The determination of the Impartial Arbitrator shall be made within thirty days of the application by the player, and shall be based upon all information relating to such hardship submitted by such date. The determination of the Impartial Arbitrator shall be final and binding upon all parties.

Section (i), combined with new financial penalties for holdouts that teams cannot waive, has resulted in the infamous "hold-in", where players report to camp but do not fully participate.

Section (ii) concerns accrual of service time. For a player to become an unrestricted free agent, they must accrue 4 years of service time in the NFL. Should JPJ not accrue an additional year of service time during the 2026-2027 league year, he would only qualify for restricted free agent status. In that case, the Steelers could use a range of options to retain his service, most likely a "first-round tender". In this case, if another team offers JPJ a contract, the Steelers could either match that contract or choose to take the acquiring team's first-round pick, whichever they prefer.

The difference between the first-round tender for a RFA and "franchise tag" for an unrestricted free agent is the price: a 2027 first round tender would come in somewhere around $8.5M, whereas the franchise tag would be somewhere around $23M. Further, if the Steelers retain JPJ using a first-round tender next year, the Steelers could choose to franchise tag JPJ in 2028-2029.

If JPJ does not play, he would most likely claim that he was injured, not holding out. There are provisions in the collective bargaining agreement governing player health and fitness to perform. That's a whole separate conversation; happy discuss in the comments if folks like.

Chris Jones held out into the season for a new deal, but he was already under contract and did not need to qualify for unrestricted free agency. Given JPJ's service time, he runs a serious risk of not qualifying for unrestricted free agency if he holds out into Week 1.

I see that Kobalt has expanded their line of mini toolboxes. They’ve added a lineup of NFL teams. By my count, there are 31 teams. Guess which team is missing? Why no love for the Steelers?? Did the teams have to approve the designs?

Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. returned to practice on Tuesday.

However, the contract dispute that has lingered through training camp remains unresolved. 

One thing that gets me freaked out about salary cap metrics is "dead money". Of course we do not want to be in the Miami Dolphins situation, but I read about how some dead money is irrelevant. I guess another way to look at it is, we are net gainers: The Dolphins are paying Ramsey over 20 million and our total dead money is only 18 and change.

But when it comes to these trades. We picked up B Jones spending a first round pick, but trading him for far less. Same thing with Johnson, we spent a 3rd round pick but got a 6th round in return.

Those seem like failures to me.

Thoughts?

I'm admittedly an Ohio State fan and was excited to see what Will Howard can do. Then we drafted Allar and, if I'm being honest with myself, he outperformed Howard in the pre-season, by far. I actually really like Allar's skillset and I think he can be good under the tutelage of McCarthy. Now I am more of an Allar fan, in terms of what I think he can bring to the Steelers. That said, he grew up a Browns fan and probably hated the Steelers. There's a little nagging feeling that he might not really want to be here (just my thinking, not based on anything he ever said or did). I mean, is that a thing? Obviously I'm hopeful that the prevailing argument would be true, which is that he's a professional and should put all his personal feelings aside and play as hard as he would for any other team (except the Ravens. Fuck the Ravens).

But I don't know. I grew up a Yankees fan and I hate the Boston Red Sox with every ounce of my being. If I was a baseball player and got signed to the Red Sox, I know I would be fucking pissed. Of all the teams I could have landed on, it's the goddamn Red Sux? Ugh. I mean I'd still play hard and be professional, but I can't imagine ever having a fond feeling for my team, or want to go above and beyond for them. Would I unconsciously lack effort? Probably, yeah, unconsciously. Especially when I played against the Yankees.

Maybe I'm in the minority with feeling this way about my teams' rivals, but it's now the one thing that is making me hesitant about Allar. If he grew up hating the Steelers as much as I hate the Red Sox, I'd be worried, ngl. Someone please talk me off this ledge.

I’m sure these kind of questions pop up alot but I’m trying to coordinate a 10hour drive to take my family to the colts game in October but the prices for 4 tickets just seem nuts? We did this trip some 10 years ago when my kids were little and we barely had any extra money put a small amount on a credit card but got 4 tickets for a Sunday night football game and stayed at a nice place downtown on top of all the doubters and food. I’m making double what I was back then and just looking at tickets and hotel alone I gave my wife a “I dunno about this” look

Is locking in some $700 for 4 tickets in what looks like barely mediocre seats worth it now or waiting to see if prices come down or is this shit just f’d all the time now and I gotta look at this as some kind of big family moment to justify the costs.

SAF Juanyeh Thomas

Safety depth was already a concern throughout camp — that was before the Steelers placed DeShon Elliott on injured reserve, forcing him to miss at least the first four games. Cut by the Colts at the end of camp, Thomas now sits fourth on the Steelers’ depth chart behind Jaquan Brisker, Rayshawn Jenkins and rookie Robert Spears-Jennings. Thomas began his career as a 2022 UDFA in Dallas, where he overlapped with Mike McCarthy. Before that, the 6-foot, 212-pound safety was a core special teamer at Georgia Tech. That’s likely the area he’d contribute most, even if there are injuries to the safeties. Thomas has appeared in 36 games between 2023 and 2025, with four starts. He’s recorded 62 tackles and five passes defended.

RB Travis Homer

A special-teams ace who often served as the personal protector on the punt unit during training camp, Homer was firmly in the RB3 competition. (In fact, I expected him to make the team on my final projection.) However, the Steelers chose Eli Heidrenreich’s return ability and offensive skill set over a four-phase special teamer like Homer. The Steelers might consider elevating Homer for particular matchups, or in the event any of the core special teamers are injured.

DL Esezi Otomewo

A 27-year-old journeyman, Otomewo enjoyed his most productive year as a pro last season. The 6-5, 282-pound defensive lineman appeared in 12 games, with nine tackles and one sack. Through most of camp, he sat right on the bubble. The Steelers opted for youth over experience.

If anybody is planning on purchasing tickets for a Steelers home game this season, there's some cool stuff attached to some of the home games.

Bungals 9/27 - Hall of Honor game, new class introduced on the field

Brownies 11/1 - Salute to service 🫡, honoring veterans

Broncos 11/27 - Black Friday game. Steelers first Black Friday home game in team history and our first Friday regular season game since 1946 📜

Texans 12/6 - Sunday Night Football, Alumni weekend and My Cause My Cleats

Panthers TBD - final home game/Thank you fans game with giveaways through the game. One fan wins a black and gold F-150 at halftime

Looking forward to week 3 against the Bungals, coming all the way from California to support the guys!

Wetjen is gonna be a helpful returner for us this szn. His return production kept getting better and better through college, the one and only back-to-back Jet Award winner.

My favorite thing about him this offseason is Danny Crossman pointing out his “catch-run-cut” ability and adding that vertical one cut returners have had their success under the new NFL return rules, Wetjen has that background.

He’s far from new to returning kicks. We got a look at his ability to score against Buffalo week 4 pre-szn, when he reversed the field and took a punt 45 yds to the house.

We clearly believed in Wetjen enough to use a 4th rd on him. Now that he is KR1/PR1, I’m excited to see how many TDs he‘ll be able to rack up this szn, as well as his yard averages as the year goes on.

3 PR TDs or 3 KR TDs would set a Steelers single season record for either return category.

Y’all think we actually see a couple return TDs from Wetjen this year or he’ll possibly break our team record ?

"No, not at all. I was really just happy that they got theirs done, you know. I came in with those guys, me, Herb, and Keeanu, and even Washington. We all came in together. Those are my guys. So I was ecstatic that they got paid. It's well-deserved. It's well-earned. So I'm happy that they get to feed their families and do what they want to do with their money that they earn."

I’ll be having some family in town for the weekend of September 18th-20th. Does anyone have any recommendations for bars to go to for the week 2 Steelers vs Patriots game that Sunday afternoon? Thanks!