Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Bud Dupree goes through a drill during a training camp practice, Monday in Pittsburgh. Dupree bet on himself and won last year. Now, he finds himself having to do it again after the team placed the franchise tag on him. With a long-term deal in Pittsburgh unlikely, he will spend 2020 trying to prove his 2019 was no fluke.

PITTSBURGH — Bud Dupree didn't get offended last summer when the Pittsburgh Steelers declined to negotiate a contract extension. It was fine, the outside linebacker said repeatedly, pointing out it simply gave him a chance to bet on himself.

A year later, after the breakout season Dupree insists is no fluke, the stakes are even higher. The Steelers placed the franchise tag on Dupree in March after the 2015 first-round pick had a career-high 11 1/2 sacks in 2019, and teamed with T.J. Watt to form one of the NFL's most potent edge rush duos. Yet Dupree failed to iron out a long-term deal with the Steelers by July's deadline, meaning Dupree once again finds himself playing for his future.

While admitting it's “bittersweet”' because he understands this will almost certainly be his final season with the Steelers, Dupree isn't exactly losing sleep over it. When asked if he came close to signing a new contract, the 27-year-old flashed his trademark good-natured sarcasm.

“We came close to a two-year, $200-million deal,” Dupree said with a laugh, before pointing out it fell through because Pittsburgh needs the cash to lock up pending free agent defensive end Cam Heyward.

There's more than a little truth to that. Keeping Heyward, a longtime captain with significant ties to the city, figures to be a priority. And Watt figures to earn a massive raise next summer. Dupree perhaps not so much, at least not in Pittsburgh.

The Steelers also used their third-round pick in the draft to select Alex Highsmith, who figures to have the first crack at replacing Dupree in 2021. Still, Dupree isn't angry about the way things have shaken out. Though his representatives filed a grievance with the NFL Players Association asking to be classified as a defensive end — a position group whose one-year franchise tender is $2 million higher than the $15.7 million allotted outside linebackers — he chalked it up to the cost of doing business.

Even with his future uncertain, Dupree knows he has control of the present. For now, that's enough.

“I'm in the driver's seat of my career right now,” he said. “And everything will be in the place at the end of the year.”

His words echo his sentiments entering 2019, when Dupree was looking to prove the Steelers made the right decision when they picked up his fifth-year option despite middling production. He averaged just five sacks a season during his first four years, tantalizing with his speed and power but too often finding himself a half-step from making a consistent impact on games.