Darius Slay is now set to become a free agent after the Philadelphia Eagles decided to release him. However, the Pittsburgh Steelers feel like one of the more obvious landing spots for Slay.

Throw aside Slay’s comments from December that he nearly became a Steeler in 2023 after the team recruited him to the defense

“Mike Tomlin, one of the best coaches in the NFL, man,” Slay said on his podcast, Big Play Slay. “What’s so crazy is I almost was going to them, too. They hit me up, too. T.J. Watt text me, Cam Heyward text me, and they talked about me coming there. Before I ever got to make a decision, they signed Pat Pete, so they kind of chilled out for a minute. But I was almost a Pittsburgh Steeler as well.”

The connections Slay has in Pittsburgh scream out loud that it is possible he could head to Pittsburgh.

For one, assistant general manager Andy Weidl has added numerous Eagles pieces to the roster after leaving Philadelphia. He was there for Slay’s tenure and that naturally makes some sense that he could look into that as a possibility.

The stronger one might be that Slay’s defensive coordinator while in Detroit was Teryl Austin. Austin was Slay’s coach for four seasons with the Lions, and that reunion, especially with a similar scheme, could make sense for Slay.

Slay has one, maybe two years left in him at 36. The Steelers are not completely on the cusp of winning a Super Bowl, and if Slay wants to capture another Super Bowl before he retires, he might look elsewhere. Yet, if he wants some familiarity, the Steelers would make a lot of sense.