Salary Cap for next year?

[Northern_Blitz]

The offense pretty much needs rebuilt and that's going to be a multi-year project. The way they are being dominated on the OL is shocking, I think they should pass on skill position players for the most part until this is done. consistently struggling to gain 1 yd is the tell-all. It will be ugly for a few years but no way around it.

I agree with you.

Get the non glamorous guys this season. And focus on QB and other sexy stuff next year.

But we'll have lots of holes this offseason, so should be a good opportunity for BPA.

[NJ-STEELER]

You need to include their dead cap hit if cut.

gor example. We have tuitt as a cap savings of 5 + million.

his dead cap hot for next year looks to be 9 million.
there no way they cut him if that’s accurate

The talk of a Ben extension is because his dead cap hit for next year is over 20m. Lot of dough for someone not on the roster

[Northern_Blitz]

You need to include their dead cap hit if cut.

gor example. We have tuitt as a cap savings of 5 + million.

his dead cap hot for next year looks to be 9 million.
there no way they cut him if that’s accurate

The talk of a Ben extension is because his dead cap hit for next year is over 20m. Lot of dough for someone not on the roster

Thanks NJ.

I believe the dead money is included here. The cap savings listed is cap hit if playing) minus dead money (because the dead money stays.

In Tuitt's case, his cap hit if he plays is about $15m. His dead money is $9m if he gets cut. So the savings would be about $6m. He's still productive and we'd need to replace him if he didn't play, so I think we keep him.

That's how I think it works for all the cuts we'd talk about (including Pouncey or Haden). The numbers I used for the calculations are in the link I provided on guys under contract for next year. Hope I didn't make additional math errors on top of the ones I pointed out. I think TO was right about Haden and my numbers make it look like we have an extra $5M of room that we don't have.

I agree with you on Ben and his dead money. And I was firmly in the extend camp too until the last month. But like Heyward this year, I think the extension has to be pretty long to get some relief.

But let's say he gets the same extension as last time (I think 2 years is too short to get much help). $68M over 2 years including a $33.5M signing bonus (and some roster bonuses included). I think it might need to be longer than that to get much relief from the $41 cap hit we have now and I think he'd get paid more given the market rate for franchise QBs.

If he keeps playing, that means he would count for some combination of $109M over the next three years (the $68 in new money plus the $41 for playing this year). As with his current contract, I'm sure we would kick as much as possible to the last year.

But there are rules for how much you can restructure and back load, so I'd be surprised if we could do all that much over such a short period (although I don't exactly understand the parameters for restructures). He might even get more than this as the market rate for QBs only goes up. If it was all distributed evenly, his cap hit would be $36.3 / year for the next three in this scenario.

As I said, I don't fully understand the rules for extensions and pushing money around. But in his last extension (also 2 years), he got the following percentages of remaining cap hit in the remaining year + the 2 years of the extension. 28% in existing year, 26% in year 2 (after another max restructure), 46% in the final year (next year).

If those percentages hold, I think the cap hits would be $30.5M, $28.3M, $50.1M. But given his current level of play, I don't think they'd do another restructure in the middle, so that ~$78.5M would probably be distributed more evenly across the last 2 years.

Although if he could play 2 more years, we'd end up in a similar position as now just with even more dead money or an even larger cap hit if he played it out.

So, I 100% agree that the dead money is going to suck. But it sucks way less than letting him play out the contract with a $41M cap hit. Or extending him for a market level deal IMO.

The dead money is the price we (gladly) pay for kicking his cap hit down the road for so long to remain competitive. But it means that we'll suck when he's done (or in his last contract year if he ever gets to it).

[feltdizz]

I think you try to keep as much of the D together and make another run.

I'd make signing TJ, Bud, Hilton, and Sutton my priorities and try to extend everyone else as best you can to keep the unit together.

This D + some offensive weapons makes Pittsburgh a potential great landing spot for a good enough QB that may be able to get us over the hump. I'd suggest if Cam has worn out his welcome in NE, he might be the kind of guy that Mike Tomlin could get something out of.

Cam's not super accurate, but he's got a strong arm and I think he might be able to hit it big deep from time to time with CC, JW, and DJ. I think he's got a lot of football left and he probably won't have a better option than Pittsburgh if we wanted him.

Cam looks done too. Billicheat definitely took advantage of the Covid situation with Cam. He couldn’t work out for teams but wanted to start and the Pats gave him that chance.

It failed miserably. Still not sure if Covid impacted him more than some want to admit. He was balling early on and then once he came back after testing positive he was trash.

I would actually give Jameis a look before Cam. He threw for a ton of yards and pushes the ball downfield. INT’s are definitely a problem but I think in our system he is worth a shot and should be affordable.

[Northern_Blitz]

Cam looks done too. Billicheat definitely took advantage of the Covid situation with Cam. He couldn’t work out for teams but wanted to start and the Pats gave him that chance.

It failed miserably. Still not sure if Covid impacted him more than some want to admit. He was balling early on and then once he came back after testing positive he was trash.

I would actually give Jameis a look before Cam. He threw for a ton of yards and pushes the ball downfield. INT’s are definitely a problem but I think in our system he is worth a shot and should be affordable.

I wouldn't be opposed to Winston if we can get him on a deal like the one he's currently on.

Lots of INTs, but TDs too. Almost certainly better then MR.

[NorthCoast]

You need to include their dead cap hit if cut.

gor example. We have tuitt as a cap savings of 5 + million.

his dead cap hot for next year looks to be 9 million.
there no way they cut him if that’s accurate

The talk of a Ben extension is because his dead cap hit for next year is over 20m. Lot of dough for someone not on the roster

That's pretty close to the hit they took for AB. It's doable but painful. And if he really is cooked as a starter it's got to be done.

[Northern_Blitz]

That's pretty close to the hit they took for AB. It's doable but painful. And if he really is cooked as a starter it's got to be done.

This.

The "nice" thing about the AB hit was that we got a cap reimbursement from the Bell tag that went unused because he didn't play.

Although it would have been MUCH nicer to be able to use the bonus $20M in cap space to make the team better instead of shipping AB off for what seemed like way below market value at the time (especially if the BUF rumors were true).

[Disco1981]

This.

The "nice" thing about the AB hit was that we got a cap reimbursement from the Bell tag that went unused because he didn't play.

Although it would have been MUCH nicer to be able to use the bonus $20M in cap space to make the team better instead of shipping AB off for what seemed like way below market value at the time (especially if the BUF rumors were true).

I really like to your posts! Always up on the salary cap, and the financial ramifications of the Steelers Roster also...

If true ( pretty sure it was ) the Buffalo rumor...I believe it was the no.8 pick...That pick used on a QB would have looked really nice right now in hindsight...But who knows what they woulda done!

[flippy]

Cam looks done too. Billicheat definitely took advantage of the Covid situation with Cam. He couldn’t work out for teams but wanted to start and the Pats gave him that chance.

It failed miserably. Still not sure if Covid impacted him more than some want to admit. He was balling early on and then once he came back after testing positive he was trash.

I would actually give Jameis a look before Cam. He threw for a ton of yards and pushes the ball downfield. INT’s are definitely a problem but I think in our system he is worth a shot and should be affordable.

I think Covid was a lot bigger for Cam than it was reported.

Plus switching offensive systems without the off season is a ton on a QB.

And I'm not 100% sure Bill B is the kind of coach the jives well with Cam's personality.

By all accounts, Cam is still one of the best athletes in the league and he's got a great arm. The player he most reminds me of is Ben if Ben could run too. Just like Ben, Cam plays out of his mind sometimes and no one looks better. Then other times you get Bad Cam just like Bad Ben.

I'd consider Jameis too, but I like Cam a lot more. Cam has always gotten a weird rep and his personality rubs some the wrong way, but from everything I've ever heard about him, he's driven and has a crazy work ethic and I think Tomlin would be the perfect coach for him and might even be able to get an MVP season out of him.

But I haven't followed Jameis close enough. Just have seen a couple games where he was more off than any pro I've ever seen.

[Northern_Blitz]

I really like to your posts! Always up on the salary cap, and the financial ramifications of the Steelers Roster also...

If true ( pretty sure it was ) the Buffalo rumor...I believe it was the no.8 pick...That pick used on a QB would have looked really nice right now in hindsight...But who knows what they woulda done!

Thanks Disco.

I'm trying to learn more about the cap, but I think there's lots I don't know. In particular, I'd like to understand how extensions and restructures work so I could get a sense of what a Ben extension might look like.

I want to try to see if I can understand if there's a reasonable way to extend him (and not gut the rest of the team). I currently don't think there is, but I'm hoping his play proves me wrong in the next couple weeks.

[NJ-STEELER]

That's pretty close to the hit they took for AB. It's doable but painful. And if he really is cooked as a starter it's got to be done.

agreed. It’s a tough pill to swallow but at least it would be a quick turnaround for 2022.
And hopefully most of the defensive pieces are still in play

[NJ-STEELER]

Thanks Disco.

I'm trying to learn more about the cap, but I think there's lots I don't know. In particular, I'd like to understand how extensions and restructures work so I could get a sense of what a Ben extension might look like.

I want to try to see if I can understand if there's a reasonable way to extend him (and not gut the rest of the team). I currently don't think there is, but I'm hoping his play proves me wrong in the next couple weeks.

it would have to be a new deal at a fraction of his previous one

40m for 3 years or something like that. Something to bring down his cap hit to 20-25M
Is that even allowed by the league? Would Ben even sign off on a deal like that?
You know the NFLPA would also freak out over a deal like that too.

looks virtually impossible right now

[Northern_Blitz]

it would have to be a new deal at a fraction of his previous one

40m for 3 years or something like that. Something to bring down his cap hit to 20-25M
Is that even allowed by the league? Would Ben even sign off on a deal like that?
You know the NFLPA would also freak out over a deal like that too.

looks virtually impossible right now

It's not against the rules as long as the cap hits are distributed properly (I think).

I don't think Ben plays for much less than market value (or I think he would have done it last time). A cut from 30+ m per year to 14m seems very unlikely to me.

I think you're right that the union puts pressure on guys to play at market value. But players can ultimately do what they like.

[Sly]

I think you try to keep as much of the D together and make another run.

I'd make signing TJ, Bud, Hilton, and Sutton my priorities and try to extend everyone else as best you can to keep the unit together.

This D + some offensive weapons makes Pittsburgh a potential great landing spot for a good enough QB that may be able to get us over the hump. I'd suggest if Cam has worn out his welcome in NE, he might be the kind of guy that Mike Tomlin could get something out of.

Cam's not super accurate, but he's got a strong arm and I think he might be able to hit it big deep from time to time with CC, JW, and DJ. I think he's got a lot of football left and he probably won't have a better option than Pittsburgh if we wanted him.

I saw Cam play twice this year, and he looked terrible. Granted that you could get him on the cheap, but I don't see how he would be an improvement over Ben. As distasteful as it may be, it may be time for a rebuild. Pittsburgh has to draft a QB. The good news is that you don't have to draft first to get a good one. Wilson wasn't drafted until the 3rd round, and even Mahomes was the 10th selection in his draft class. The reality for Pittsburgh is that the three teams in its division all have young QBs. So I don't think it makes sense for Pittsburgh to try to win with some reclamation project.

[Northern_Blitz]

I saw Cam play twice this year, and he looked terrible. Granted that you could get him on the cheap, but I don't see how he would be an improvement over Ben. As distasteful as it may be, it may be time for a rebuild. Pittsburgh has to draft a QB. The good news is that you don't have to draft first to get a good one. Wilson wasn't drafted until the 3rd round, and even Mahomes was the 10th selection in his draft class. The reality for Pittsburgh is that the three teams in its division all have young QBs. So I don't think it makes sense for Pittsburgh to try to win with some reclamation project.

I think we wait a year into the rebuild to get a QB in the draft.

Cut the dead wood and look for BPAs this year. Keep as many defensive guys as we can.

Suck. QB is MR and competition from a cheap scrap heap QB like Winston or Newton.

Then pick early and shoot for a QB.

Dont reach if there isn't one available. Repeat the tank if no good options (or we get 8 wins or something)