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Out of necessity, the Pittsburgh Steelers (http://pennlive.com/steelers) have been relatively cheap shoppers in recent free agency windows. The necessity is gone in 2017. The Steelers have $21.1 million under the salary cap to spend. But the $12 million jump in base salary cap around the NFL hasn't altered Pittsburgh's approach to free agency all that much.
If anything, general manager Kevin Colbert said, it's spread their own gospel around the league.
"It really hasn't changed it for us because we've always been a draft-develop, keep-our-own," he said at the NFL
This ripples out and around all 32 teams. It contributes to cuts like the ones the Minnesota Vikings and New York Jets are making to Adrian Peterson and Darrelle Revis, respectively.
Teams can afford to keep the players they want with the extra cap space they have, Colbert said, and see even less of need to overpay for poorly aging contracts as a result.
All of which bloodies the free agent waters.
"There's an inherent danger in that because some of the players that are hitting the market with the number of dollars that are available might not be quite worth what they're going to get paid because of the supply and demand," Colbert Looking at how much more the Pittsburgh Steelers can spend in free agency this offseason than in previous years and who they signed when their purse strings were tighter. It's not even close on the first count.[/COLOR]
Other general managers at the Combine warned of this same danger. The Steelers, as a team that was one game away from the Super Bowl, are just less inherently exposed to that market, in theory.
In practice, Pittsburgh's extra budget won't necessarily lead to higher-paid free agent Steelers.
Players' representatives will still focus on how much their player is set to make in the first three years of a deal. The Steelers will keep projecting their salary cap figures out four years at a time.
And when free agency breaks open at 4 p.m., the Steelers will remain far from the biggest spenders.
Said Colbert: "It really hasn't changed that drastically for us."
Fifteen reasonably plausible Steelers free agents signings. Or re-signings. (http://www.pennlive.com/steelers/index.ssf/2017/03/steelers_possible_free_agents.html#incart_river_in dex)
If anything, general manager Kevin Colbert said, it's spread their own gospel around the league.
"It really hasn't changed it for us because we've always been a draft-develop, keep-our-own," he said at the NFL
This ripples out and around all 32 teams. It contributes to cuts like the ones the Minnesota Vikings and New York Jets are making to Adrian Peterson and Darrelle Revis, respectively.
Teams can afford to keep the players they want with the extra cap space they have, Colbert said, and see even less of need to overpay for poorly aging contracts as a result.
All of which bloodies the free agent waters.
"There's an inherent danger in that because some of the players that are hitting the market with the number of dollars that are available might not be quite worth what they're going to get paid because of the supply and demand," Colbert Looking at how much more the Pittsburgh Steelers can spend in free agency this offseason than in previous years and who they signed when their purse strings were tighter. It's not even close on the first count.[/COLOR]
Other general managers at the Combine warned of this same danger. The Steelers, as a team that was one game away from the Super Bowl, are just less inherently exposed to that market, in theory.
In practice, Pittsburgh's extra budget won't necessarily lead to higher-paid free agent Steelers.
Players' representatives will still focus on how much their player is set to make in the first three years of a deal. The Steelers will keep projecting their salary cap figures out four years at a time.
And when free agency breaks open at 4 p.m., the Steelers will remain far from the biggest spenders.
Said Colbert: "It really hasn't changed that drastically for us."
Fifteen reasonably plausible Steelers free agents signings. Or re-signings. (http://www.pennlive.com/steelers/index.ssf/2017/03/steelers_possible_free_agents.html#incart_river_in dex)
