PITTSBURGH — Nearly five months after saying he wanted Bud Dupree to finish his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, general manager Kevin Colbert is running out of time to make that happen.

For this season, at least.

The Steelers and Dupree face a 4 p.m. deadline Wednesday to come to terms on a long-term contract. If no deal is reached, the 27-year-old outside linebacker must play the 2020 season under the terms of the franchise tag he signed in April.

Any negotiations on a lengthier contract would be tabled until 2021.

A wrinkle was added last week when Dupree, following in the footsteps of Tampa Bay’s Shaq Barrett, filed a grievance against the NFL over the value of his franchise tag. The allotted number for an outside linebacker is $15.82 million. As an edge pass rusher, Dupree believes he should be paid like a defensive end, a position that carries a $17.788 million tag.

The Baltimore Ravens recently settled a similar case with outside linebacker Matthew Judon, giving him a $1 million bump on his tag value and signing him for $16.8 million.

The Steelers are $5.74 million under the salary cap but could be leery of establishing franchise precedent by boosting Dupree’s tag value.

Dupree is coming off his best NFL season, finishing tied for ninth in the league with 11.5 sacks, tied for fifth with four forced fumbles and tied for fifth with 16 tackles for a loss. He also had a career high 68 tackles.

Since February, when Colbert first told reporters at the NFL Combine that he would like to make Dupree a Steeler for life, he hasn’t shied away from that stance.

“Our message has been consistently, ‘Hey, Bud, if we use the franchise tag, our goal is still to sign you and get you locked up as a Steeler for the rest of your career. And that’s what we’ll continue to try to do,'” Colbert said earlier in the offseason.

Circumstances have changed, of course, largely because of the coronavirus pandemic that threatens to disrupt the start of the 2020 season and has kept many NFL teams from negotiating contracts. Teams are reluctant to hand over large signing bonuses before a season that may not start on time or be shortened because of the pandemic.

Defensive tackle Cameron Heyward, who has one year remaining on his contract, was expected to get a reworked deal from the Steelers. Outside linebacker T.J. Watt, despite having two years remaining, also was a possibility for a lengthier contract.

The only players to receive multi-year deals from the Steelers have been the trio of free agents they signed in March: fullback Derek Watt, guard/center Stefen Wisniewski and tight end Eric Ebron. No contracts of any kind have been signed since May 1 when the Steelers added undrafted free agent James Lockhart.

The Steelers haven’t even signed any of their six draft picks, a process they wrapped up by mid-May in 2019.

Since joining the Steelers in 2000, Colbert has used the franchise tag as a precursor to getting a long-term contract signed on three occasions. In 2002, linebacker Jason Gildon agreed to a five-year deal. In 2009, tackle Max Starks signed a four-year contract and, in 2011, linebacker LaMarr Woodley received a six-year package.

“Any time we (use the tag),” Colbert said, “it is always with the intention of we would like to get him signed to a long-term deal.”

Colbert, though, wasn’t as lucky in the 2017-18 offseasons with Le’Veon Bell. The running back reportedly turned down a long-term offer before the July 15 deadline in 2017 and then skipped training camp and the entire preseason before reporting. The next year, Bell never bothered reporting at all and sat out the season.

By signing his franchise-tag tender in April, Dupree is contractually bound to report to training camp on time — whenever that is. Soon, he will know whether he will do so with a one-year contract or a lengthier deal.

“When you look around the league, people use the franchise tag and sometimes it works to help get a contract done,” team president Art Rooney II said in January. “Sometimes it’s a short-term solution. But for the most part, it’s what’s helped teams keep players on the field.”