Artie Burns, Pittsburgh's veteran cornerback and former first round pick, will not have his fifth-year option picked up by the Steelers, Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has confirmed. Today is the deadline that the Steelers would have had to pick up Burns' option. ESPN's Jeremy Fowler initially reported Wednesday afternoon that the Steelers were not picking up Burns' option, which would have cost the Steelers $9.594 millions during the 2020 season.

Burns will be an unrestricted free agent when free agency begins in 2020. While Pittsburgh isn't planning to offer Burns his option, Fowler added that Steelers are confident that Burns can re-enter the team's cornerback rotation in 2019.

Earlier this week, Pittsburgh GM Kevin Colbert said on 93.7 The Fan that he has been encouraged by Burns' offseason. Burns has been a consistent presence at the team facility that includes taking part in both phases of the team's voluntary offseason workouts.

“Artie lost his confidence and wasn’t where we needed him to be and was replaced in the starting lineup,” Colbert said. “He’s had a good offseason . . . we had good meetings with him. He wants to be back where he was.”

After a productive career at the University of Miami, Burns, who lost his mother during his final season at Miami (his father is also serving a prison sentence), moved his family (that includes two younger brothers) to Pittsburgh after being drafted by the Steelers. Burns, who was just 20-years-old when he was drafted by the Steelers, quickly adapted to life both on and off the field during his initial months in Pittsburgh. He quickly worked his way into the starting lineup as a rookie, receiving nine starts that season while recording three interceptions and 13 pass breakups. His play helped Pittsburgh advance to the AFC Championship Game, where Tom Brady (who threw for 384 yards with three touchdowns in New England's 36-17 romp) reminded Burns and the Steelers how much Pittsburgh's secondary still needed to improve before Pittsburgh could seriously threaten the Patriots for AFC supremacy.

The Steelers countered by signing free agent Joe Haden to a three-year deal just before the start of the 2017 season. While the addition of Haden helped the Steelers move from 16th to fifth in the NFL in pass defense, Pittsburgh was still unable to avoid playoff heartbreak, falling to the underdog Jaguars in the divisional round of the AFC playoffs. Burns contributed to the loss by giving up several deep passes in a season that saw him regress.

Burns' struggles carried over into the 2018 season. He was benched just three weeks into the season, and was start a career-low 10 games last fall. Along with drafting Layne, Pittsburgh also signed free agent cornerback Steven Nelson to a three-year deal earlier this offseason in case Burns is not able to find his game this season. The team also drafted former Michigan State cornerback Justin Layne in the third round of the draft.

Burns would become the first first round pick to not have his fifth year option picked up since Jarvis Jones. Jones, an outside linebacker and Pittsburgh's first pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, has been out of football since spending the 2017 season with the Arizona Cardinals.