There was a time, just 1 year ago, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were so eager to get out of the Jamel Dean business, they decided to let the veteran cornerback out of his 4-year, $52 million contract 1 year early.
That meant, for all intents and purposes, they had Dean in a lame-duck year in 2025, which could have been a disaster. From Tampa Bay’s perspective, that only meant it would have been no different from the 2 seasons after they’d given Dean a career payday before the 2023 season.
Dean, somehow, flipped the script and looked like an elite cornerback once again in 2025 — a season he parlayed into a 3-year, $36.75 million free-agent contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell singled out Dean’s deal with the Steelers as 1 of the NFL’s best free-agent signings in the 2026 cycle.
“The league generally doesn’t want to pay cornerbacks as they approach 30, with the Steelers as one of the few exceptions,” Barnwell wrote. “Though in years past they’ve gone after players who have lost value, such as Jalen Ramsey and Patrick Peterson, Dean is still playing at a very high level. Lining up in a blitz-heavy scheme under coach Todd Bowles in Tampa Bay, Dean gave up a 63.1 passer rating in coverage last season, one of the best marks in the league. His 2.1% missed tackle rate also ranked among the league leaders, and Dean has consistently been a very good tackler in his seven-year career. The Steelers are only really on the hook for one year and $13.5 million, leaving them with plenty of flexibility if Dean does take a step back in his age-30 season.”
Teams Warned Against Signing Jamel Dean
As Dean was poised to cash in with another big free agent contract after putting up decent numbers in 2025, Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport warned teams against paying up, calling Dean the NFL’s biggest “free agent bust waiting to happen.”
“It’s not a great year to be an NFL team in need of help at the cornerback position,” Davenport wrote. “This year’s draft class isn’t especially imposing, and neither is the group of available free agents. But cornerback is a premium position, and the number of teams annually looking to upgrade in the secondary usually numbers about 32. That could lead to another common mistake made by NFL general managers in free agency—overpaying the ‘top’ player available at the position … however, there’s an old saying that the best ability is availability, and that has been a career-long issue for the 29-year-old, who has missed multiple games every year he has been in the NFL.”
Bucs’ Gamble Against Jamel Dean Backfired
Like any other financial decision Tampa Bay has made with its secondary in recent years, the move to bet against Dean backfired.
In 2025, Dean had 1 of the best seasons of his career, allowing under a 50 percent completion percentage and a passer rating of just 63.1, which was the second-best mark of his career.
Dean, who had 7 interceptions in his first 4 seasons, had just 1 interception over the 2023 and 2024 seasons. In 2025, he bounced back with a career-high 3 interceptions, including 1 interception return for a touchdown.
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