Steelers cut David DeCastro

The gap between the Bengals and their heated rivals, the Steelers, has been shrinking fast since Joe Burrow arrived in Cincinnati.

Though Burrow wasn’t part of the near-miracle Week 15 win over Pittsburgh last season, the 2021 Bengals are projected to make a significant leap in what will be Year 2 of the Burrow era, while Pittsburgh continues to trend backward as franchise QB Ben Roethlisberger fades into the abyss.

The gap managed to narrow further today after Pittsburgh made a shocking decision to cut All-Pro guard David DeCastro, who was easily one of the team’s best players on offense heading into next season.

While it’s always possible the team re-signs DeCastro to a lesser deal later, the press release sure makes it sound like his time in Pittsburgh is done for good.

“David was without a doubt one of the premier offensive linemen during his time with us,” said General Manager and Vice President Kevin Colbert said in a statement. “He helped us win a lot of football games, but it was David’s consistency, reliability and professionalism that stood out more than anything else. We wish him the best moving forward in his career.”

DeCastro was voted AP First-Team All-Pro twice (2015, 2017), and Second-Team All-Pro once (2016). He now becomes arguably the best free agent on the open market, though it will be interesting to see if there’s anything wrong with DeCastro (an offseason workout injury maybe?) that helped lead to his release, as well as how much he commands on the open market this late into the offseason.