Pittsburgh Steelers ink former Washington Commanders linebacker Cole Holcomb to 3-year deal

After spending the last four seasons with the Washington Commanders, linebacker Cole Holcomb finally knows where he’ll be playing in the NFL during the 2023 season. According to a report from Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, he’ll be playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In seven games last year for the Commanders, he racked up 69 total tackles and one pass deflection. On Dec. 5, 2022, he underwent foot surgery and had to miss the remainder of the 2022 campaign.

A former fifth round selection in the 2019 NFL Draft, Holcomb played his college football for the North Carolina Tar Heels. He’s posted impressive numbers thus far during his four seasons in the National Football League–racking up 100 tackles twice–in 2019 and 2021. In 50 games played thus far in his NFL career, Holcomb has tallied 388 tackles, 4.5 sacks, five forced fumbles, three interceptions, and one fumble recovery.

Cole Holcomb had a prolific college career with UNC

During his college career with North Carolina, Holcomb enjoyed a prolific career there where he led the team in tackles for three straight seasons, from 2016 to 2018. In 2016 and 2018, he racked up over 100 tackles and fell just short of that mark in 2017 (93 tackles). His senior season in 2018, Holcomb earned second team All-ACC honors after racking up 105 tackles, eight tackles for loss, four pass breakups, and four forced fumbles.

More on the 2023 NFL offseason, free agency

The NFL 2023 calendar year is set to begin at 4 p.m. ET on March 15 when contracts running through 2022 will officially run out, making those players free agents. Prior to the beginning of free agency, teams will have a chance to designate one franchise or transition tag player, starting on Feb. 21 at 4 p.m. ET and ending on March 7. Beginning March 13 through March 15 teams will be allowed a legal negotiation with players who are set to become unrestricted free agents.

In addition to NFL free agency, the new year also marks the beginning of all trades being made official by the league office. April 21 marks the deadline to sign restricted free agents to offer sheets while April 26 marks the deadline for teams to match restricted free agent offers sheets. 722 players are slated to become free agents in 2023.

More on restricted, exclusive rights free agents

Players with only three years of accredited NFL experience become restricted free agents. Their original team will have the option to apply first-round, second-round, original-round, and right-of-fight-of-first-refusal tenders on players at escalating price tags. The higher the round, the more expensive the tender amount; however, if a separate team does offer a contract and the original team does not match that round pick will be conveyed from the new team to the original team. Right of first refusal only gives a team the option to match or not. If they don’t match, they get nothing in return. An original-round tender would send a draft pick from whatever round the player was drafted back to the original team if they chose not to match. The original team will have five days to match once a player signs an offer sheet from a new team.