The Pittsburgh Steelers organization thought Tyson Alualu was all but gone until they received some news on Friday Night that Alualu intends to stay with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The organization knew if Alualu was going to leave in the 2021 offseason they didn't have anyone to replace him. It looks like the Steelers could have taken a committee approach with Isaiah Buggs and Carlos Davis, but that doesn't sound like their plan was going to be if Alualu did in fact leave Pittsburgh.
The Steelers were making calls around the NFL looking for a veteran defensive tackle when they thought Alualu was leaving according to Dale Lolley. That changed Friday night when Alualu had a change in heart to stay with Pittsburgh. The Steelers really wanted Tyson Alualu to stay in Pittsburgh and their players did too. So it looks like they took advantage of Alualu staying in Pittsburgh and not being allowed to travel to Jacksonville in order to sign his contract due to Covid-19.
Lolly also thinks the Steelers would not have signed Chris Wormley to a new contract if Tyson Alualu would have stayed in Pittsburgh. The reason why the Steelers did not sign a veteran defensive tackle right away was that they knew Alualu had not signed his deal with the Jaguars yet. They were smart to wait and see how that would play out because now they get to keep Alualu on a much cheaper deal than they would have found on the open market. Thankfully, Alualu told the Jaguars to kick rocks and he is signing back with the Pittsburgh Steelers. It all ended up working out for both sides in the end.