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The Bengals released guard/center B.J. Finney on Friday, which ended a tumultuous year for the Kansas State product.
According to Jeremy Fowler and Brady Henderson of ESPN, Finney struggled to properly train last offseason in fear of losing a $2 million signing bonus from the Seahawks due to COVID-19 restrictions on physicals. Finney signed a two-year, $8 million deal with Seattle last March but never played an offensive down for the team, showing up to camp out of shape.
Finney showed up to camp in Seattle above his normal playing weight of 315 pounds and he ended up being traded to Cincinnati as part of the Carlos Dunlap deal in October, and he didn't get playing time with the Bengals either.
Finney, 29, spent the first four seasons of his career with the Steelers and there's a possibility that Pittsburgh could bring him back, as they need depth at guard and center. Finney started 13 games in his four seasons with the Steelers. When Finney was in the starting lineup, the Steelers were 11-2.
With Ben Roethlisberger restructuring his contract and saving more than $15 million in salary-cap space, the Steelers are now $3.6 million under the cap, according to Overthecap.com. David Andrews, Austin Reiter, Ted Karras and Nick Martin are centers that the Steelers could look at in free agency, but it would have to come at the right price. Finney could also be another option, who would come at a cheap price.