{"id":62585,"date":"2019-04-01T21:00:37","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T01:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=62585"},"modified":"2019-04-01T21:00:37","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T01:00:37","slug":"pittsburgh-steelers-release-safety-morgan-burnett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2019\/04\/01\/pittsburgh-steelers-release-safety-morgan-burnett\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Steelers Release Safety Morgan Burnett"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Monday, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/steelers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> announced they released safety <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BurnMo99.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Morgan Burnett<\/a><\/strong>. Burnett played just one season with the Steelers. Pittsburgh signed Burnett, formerly of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/packers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Green Bay Packers<\/a> then, to a three-year contract worth $14.5 million just last year.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We have released S Morgan Burnett.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BordasLaw?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@BordasLaw<\/a> TRANSACTION: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nM99XiozS0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/nM99XiozS0<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TIsYb3blCq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/TIsYb3blCq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/steelers\/status\/1112777021485207552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 1, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Morgan Burnett Cut After One Year in Pittsburgh<\/h2>\n<p>Burnett was a third-round draft pick by the Green Bay Packers back in 2010. He spent the first eight years of his career with Green Bay before signing a three-year, $14.5 million contract with the Steelers before the 2018 season. Pittsburgh released Burnett at his request on Monday following unsuccessful attempts to trade him. He finished the 2018 season with 30 tackles (17 solo) and zero interceptions in 11 games. He had his lowest tackle total since his rookie year.<\/p>\n<p>Burnett joins a free agent market littered with talent at the safety position. He is added to a crop of available safeties that already includes top names like<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BerrEr99.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Eric Berry<\/a><\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/Q\/QuinGl99.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Glover Quin<\/strong>,<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BostTr00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Tre Boston<\/strong><\/a>. With a plethora of teams still on the hunt for safety help, Burnett shouldn&#8217;t have too much difficulty finding work for 2019 and beyond.<\/p>\n<h2>What Burnett&#8217;s Release Means<\/h2>\n<p>Burnett&#8217;s release from the Steelers most likely means Pittsburgh is targeting safeties in the NFL Draft. The Steelers have recognized a need for secondary help in recent off-seasons. They began their secondary overhaul by signing former <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/browns\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cleveland Browns<\/a> cornerback <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/H\/HadeJo99.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joe Haden<\/a><\/strong> prior to the start of the 2017 season, adding Burnett and selecting <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/E\/EdmuTe00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Terrell Edmunds<\/a><\/strong> in the first round of last year&#8217;s draft.<\/p>\n<p>Coupled with the likelihood of Pittsburgh drafting a safety once again this year, it has been reported for some time now that the Steelers aim to sign quarterback <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/R\/RoetBe00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ben Roethlisberger<\/a><\/strong> to a contract extension before the 2019 season begins. Perhaps Burnett&#8217;s release is a salary cap move to help aid Roethlisberger&#8217;s extension for the Steelers, as the move saves Pittsburgh $5,250,000 on the salary cap.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"Ch3s_9wMTU1y1jY6BoW0pw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1064787538\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Ch3s_9wMTU1y1jY6BoW0pw',sig:'4mvgJUV908Jn7d1hm4R_S5atdkvPG6Gg1wZTry6UJM0=',w:'594px',h:'416px',items:'1064787538',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pittsburgh released Burnett at his request on Monday following unsuccessful attempts to trade him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3017,"featured_media":62618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,9],"tags":[186,61,2892,44,2080,40,81,3934,3450],"class_list":["post-62585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-steelers","tag-eric-berry","tag-football","tag-glover-quin","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-morgan-burnett","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-terrell-edmunds","tag-tre-boston"],"modified_by":"Will Noltie, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3017"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}