Can they franchise him?
My understanding is that when you put the franchise tag on someone, you need to have the cap room available immediately. I'm not sure we'll have the space.
I think Dave at the Terrible Podcast said that freeing up that $16M to lay the tag would involve cutting players most would want to keep (I thought they mentioned Haden, but your analysis shows that's not super helpful).
https://steelersdepot.com/2019/10/st...h-projections/
The other way they suggested doing it was to restructure Ben. Since Ben only has 2 years left, they said that doing that would make it so we'd have room next year but then an enormous cap hit for Ben the year after. Maybe they can extend him to spread the restructure over more years?
Omar's a wizard though. I hope he sees a way to get us through next year while keeping Bud (I think we also probably need new deals for JuJu, AV, and at least a 5th year option for TJ...I let Conner play out his contract).
My guess is that Bud walks as a cap casualty, but I hope I'm wrong.
From the link above:
Restructures?: The Steelers might be forced to restructure the contract of defensive end Stephon Tuitt again during the offseason and hope that he can finish out the remaining years healthy. A maximum Tuitt restructure would free up $5,453,333 in 2020 salary cap space. The Steelers could also free up another $9,977,500 in 2020 salary cap space by fully restructuring the contract of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Doing so, however, would set him up to have a monster cap charge in 2021, the final year of his contract. It would be a giant can being kicked down the road. Guard David DeCastro and center Maurkice Pouncey both might be contract restructure candidates as well if push comes to shove. Roethlisberger has a $12.5 million roster bonus due in March, so we’ll find out quickly if he’ll be restructured.
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