Jeremy Fowler
ESPN Staff Writer
The Steelers have $18.25 million in salary cap room according to NFLPA's latest report, the sixth-most in the NFL. A lot will change come March. Trading Antonio Brown would add $1.045 million to that.
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Steeler teams featuring stat-driven, me-first, fantasy-football-darling diva types such as Antonio Brown & Le'Veon Bell won no championships.
Super Bowl winning Steeler teams were built around a dynamic, in-your-face defense plus blue-collar, hard-hitting, no-nonsense football players on offense such as Hines Ward & Jerome Bettis.
We don't want Juju & Conner to replace what we lost in Brown & Bell.
We are counting on Juju & Conner to return us to the glory we once had with Hines & The Bus.
But we don't have to pay him his salary.
So in a vacuum, it "saves" us $1M.
But, we need to get another WR (probably at least a #2). That will eat up more than the $1M. And we'll probably get worse at #1 WR (JuJu isn't as good as AB) and at #2 WR (whoever they bring in as the #2 probably won't be as good as JuJu). I guess the "savings" is real if we go with Washington at 2WR. But I don't think he showed that he's ready for that yet.
I also think that cap room ($18.25) assumes that we keep Dupree and Boswell. I think cutting Dupree saves us $9M (but opens another hole on D) and cutting Boswell would mean we'd also have to eat his prorated signing bonus. I don't think we bring either of them back at the salaries they're scheduled to make.
Maybe we also extend Ben to free up more space, and restructure / extend others too.
Hopefully, we can bring in 1 big acquisition at ILB or in the secondary. Then fill the rest of the issues on D (and maybe K) with typical Steelers UFAs. Then, I think we need to hit big with our 1st this year (and hopefully Edmunds shows some rapid improvement in year 2).
I think a lot needs to go right on D for us to be legit contenders. Unfortunately, I think it usually takes more than 1 year for new acquisitions to gel on D...but we'll see.
AB has a cap hit of $22.165M in 2019. $7.04M pro-rated bonus, $2.5M roster bonus, $12.625 base salary. If he is traded prior to roster bonus date (March 12 IIRC) then the Steelers will count the $7.04M plus the same $7.04M X 2 for the pro-rated bonus in 2020 and 2021 for $21.12M. So, the Steelers will count approx. $1.4M against the cap ($21.12M vs. $22.165M) less, but they will be without AB, and will have to decide how to replace him.
Everybody always mentions cap room but more important is how many spots you have to fill and what you need to fill (starters vs. depth). Steelers have 38 under contract with AB and need 15 more players just to hit the 53. That is a better position than needing 16 players, having an extra $1M, and needing a starter at WR.
Go get Moseley, like ya shoulda in the first place... and Teddy Bridgewater as a backup. They could go .500 with him starting.
2013 MNF Executive Champion!
Bridgewater did not all that look good piloting the Saints in week 17. Got spanked by the Panthers and their 3rd string QB.
Steeler teams featuring stat-driven, me-first, fantasy-football-darling diva types such as Antonio Brown & Le'Veon Bell won no championships.
Super Bowl winning Steeler teams were built around a dynamic, in-your-face defense plus blue-collar, hard-hitting, no-nonsense football players on offense such as Hines Ward & Jerome Bettis.
We don't want Juju & Conner to replace what we lost in Brown & Bell.
We are counting on Juju & Conner to return us to the glory we once had with Hines & The Bus.
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