Melvin Ingram asking to be traded and getting his wish is not the first time this has occurred in-season with Mike Tomlin and the Steelers. It happened with LeGarrette Blount and James Harrison not so long ago.
Only this time, Ingram didn't resort to the methods those players did to force his way out. Or so it would appear.
When the Steelers traded Ingram to the Kansas City Chiefs for a 2022 sixth-round pick on Tuesday, they did so despite re-creating the very problem that existed before they signed him to a one-year, $4 million deal in July. And that was not having any type of depth, not to mention proven depth, at outside linebacker — the most important position on their defense.
But Ingram got his wish, and now the Steelers will give his role to former first-round pick Taco Charlton, who played 10 snaps in Sunday's victory against the Cleveland Browns after spending the previous five weeks on the practice squad. Therein lies the delicate balance a franchise often encounters: acquiescing to a player's wishes as opposed to what might be best for the team.
"What the team needs is first and foremost," Tomlin said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. "That's just how it goes. From a team perspective, it's better to have volunteers as opposed to hostages. That's good for the team, as well."
Just seven weeks into the season, Ingram had gone from feeling "like a kid in a candy store" — his words when he signed with the Steelers — to a kid who had his Halloween basket stolen.
Apparently, he was unhappy with his dwindling playing time, which had been reduced the past couple games in which he appeared (he did not play against the Browns because the Steelers said he had a groin injury). But it wasn't just the amount of snaps that were reduced. So were his numbers. He had just one sack in six games and did not have a quarterback hit in three of the past four games.
When Alex Highsmith played every snap two weeks ago against Seattle — a rarity for any defensive player other than a cornerback or safety — it apparently was enough for Ingram, who played just 17 snaps, to handle. He asked the Steelers to trade him and they obliged.
"It just didn't work out the way we envisioned, the way he envisioned," Tomlin said.
This is not the first time a Steelers player either misunderstood his role or the way it was communicated to him by the coaches.
In 2014, after the Steelers signed him to a two-year deal in March to be a backup to Le'Veon Bell, Blount walked off the field before a Week 11 game in Tennessee was over because he was unhappy he played only one snap against the Titans. The Steelers told him to keep walking and released him several days later. He quickly signed with the New England Patriots and ended up with a Super Bowl ring.
In December 2017, Harrison was released after he repeatedly asked the Steelers to trade him because he was unhappy with his limited playing time. Harrison was not activated for six games and played a total of 40 snaps in five others. He forced his way out by admittedly pretending to fall asleep in meetings or skipping them all together.
But, in each instance, Blount and Harrison felt as though their role on the team had been misrepresented to them.
After Blount and Bell combined to rush for 265 yards in a Week 3 against the Carolina Panthers — Bell had 147, Blount had 118 — the Steelers would sometimes refer to their backfield tandem as "1 and 1A." That, apparently, led Blount to think his role on the team was greater than what was intended.
Harrison's case was somewhat similar. He said he was told by Tomlin he was being used so sparingly early in the season because, at age 39, the Steelers wanted to keep him fresh for later in the season. When that didn't happen, and his requests to be released weren't being met, he deliberately became insubordinate to force his way out. The Steelers eventually released him on Dec. 23 and, like Blount, he signed with the Patriots several days later.
"Sometimes that happens in free agency," Tomlin said. "That's really, culturally, why we build our team primarily through the draft. When you do business with guys from the time they're 20 or 21, you have an opportunity to be a part of their growth and development. They have an opportunity to buy into your system. Free agency makes it cumbersome at times."
