(Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
After a year away from the Steelers and with the Seahawks and Bengals, center/guard B.J. Finney is back in Pittsburgh and the Kansas State product is relieved by the fact after having a rough 2020.
"Honestly, it's like coming home," Finney told Teresa Varley of Steelers.com. "You can't wait to get home, so we are excited to be back. My family and I are excited to be back.
Hopefully everything plays out well."
Finney signed a two-year, $8 million deal with the Seahawks in free agency in March of 2020, but things ended up not working out in Seattle and he along with a seventh-round draft pick were traded to the Bengals for defensive end Carlos Dunlap on Oct. 28.
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 showed up to camp above his normal playing weight of 315 pounds and ended up never playing an offensive down for the Seahawks.
Things didn't end up working out in Cincinnati either, as he played in just one game and was inactive for the rest of the games.
Finney is looking to bounce back from his tumultuous 2020 season in a place he's familiar with, however.
"You can never fully get away from anything with all of the friends and family we have on the team," Finney said. "Last year we were keeping tabs on everybody, checking in on everyone to make sure they were doing all right, keeping the lines of communication open. When you still have friends and family on the team, you are still going to follow it."
The Bengals released Finney on March 5, and the Steelers signed him on March 14.
"It was within a couple of days of being released by Cincinnati that Mr. (Kevin) Colbert and Omar (Khan) reached out to my agents," Finney said.
"They were like Pittsburgh is interested in bringing you back. We can work out the details and see what takes place. A couple of other teams were interested but didn't know what they had with the salary cap and so forth. We were stern and said tell us what you are going to offer, or I will be on a plane to Pittsburgh. Fast forward a couple of days and I was headed back to Pittsburgh."