Salary Cap Information

[Mojouw]

Apologies if this belongs in another thread...but with so much discussion and conflicting information on the Steelers cap situation for 2018 and beyond, I thought it deserved a separate post.

I have been under the assumption that the cap situation was dire and the team was surely screwed for 2018. But, I've been taking a look at various salary cap sims out there - and it isn't really as bad as I thought. It is amazing how readily one can clear room. Now all this assumes the #'s these programs are using are correct...but check this out:

https://overthecap.com/calculator/ - was able to restructure a few guys, make a few cuts (only starting player was Mitchell), franchise Bell, extend all key RFA and ERFA guys AND still have $9.5 million dollars in cap space going in to the draft.

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/tools/roster/

Using this one I cut the same guys as above, restructured Ben and Tuitt, and had $19.5 million prior to franchise tagging Bell and the draft. Restructuring Haden or Decastro would get me even more.

So I admittedly don't fully understand restructures and their long term implications because I have no interest in studying the cap 2-3 seasons into the future (hell starting in 2020 the Steelers have like over $100 million in cap space because they have like 10 guys in the books - so that's kinda useless) but MAYBE this whole thing really is just monopoly money and cap space can be created almost at will.

[Psycho Ward 86]

We usually carry $3-4 million right going into the season incase of injuries?

And not sure whats realistic for depth signings but i imagine like at least $5 million is something to take into account.

Man i really hope we can keep Bell

[Craic]

If you're cutting Shazier, then the overthecap site isn't accurate as it wrongly assumes we can cut him with no cap hit. Unfortunately, since he would be cut due to injury, we are fully on the hook for his salary this year (and the same is true for the other site).

[Mojouw]

If you're cutting Shazier, then the overthecap site isn't accurate as it wrongly assumes we can cut him with no cap hit. Unfortunately, since he would be cut due to injury, we are fully on the hook for his salary this year (and the same is true for the other site).

Didn't cut Shazier to avoid that inaccuracy.

Mitchell, Gay, Golden, Wilcox, DHB, and Golden are the main cuts. I realize that is a bit unrealistic because it absolutely guts the safety group -- but honestly in a perfect world all the safeties on this team would be replaced!

[Craic]

Didn't cut Shazier to avoid that inaccuracy.

Mitchell, Gay, Golden, Wilcox, DHB, and Golden are the main cuts. I realize that is a bit unrealistic because it absolutely guts the safety group -- but honestly in a perfect world all the safeties on this team would be replaced!

Ahh.

I think we could gain some money also by extending Haden three years (makes him 31 at the end of his contract) and pushing a little of next years salary into the back end that contract while giving him a bonus the following year to entice him. Also, and although it'll never happen, the Steelers should bring Ben in and tell him, "So, you want three more years? Okay, we'll extend your contract, push cap money into that last year and pay you a few million for that last year as well. This way, we get to keep your weapons around you and build a defense to get you at least one, if not two or three more rings." At this point in his career, I think he says yes to that deal. I agree with cutting Gay. He was a good player for us, but we have enough young CBs coming up now. I also think we should cut Sensabaugh. He's not worth the cap hit. I'd keep either Golden or Wilcox precisely so we don't gut the safeties. But, we need to go find one in the draft.

[steelreserve]

So I admittedly don't fully understand restructures and their long term implications because I have no interest in studying the cap 2-3 seasons into the future (hell starting in 2020 the Steelers have like over $100 million in cap space because they have like 10 guys in the books - so that's kinda useless) but MAYBE this whole thing really is just monopoly money and cap space can be created almost at will.

I think in a really simplified way you can look at it like this. You have space under the cap for about six top-tier contracts ($10M a year average and up) including the quarterback, about the same number of guys in the next tier of about $4-8 million, and group of six or seven guys at $2-3 million. Notice that this is the AVERAGE of their contract, not their cap hit that year. The other 35 guys all have to be on rookie contracts or extremely cheap deals.

You can add a guy to the top tier by moving money around (we currently have 7, which will be 8 if we sign Bell and keep everyone else), but then that'll cost you the ability to keep a guy in the second tier next year and that's the end of it. Or, you can keep the second-tier guy by moving money around, but it prevents you from keeping a different top-tier or second-tier guy the next offseason and there's no way around it. So that's about where we are now - the season before that last one. That's the effect 2-3 years out.

Now, we may have that problem solved for us this time, in that a couple of the guys who would normally command "top-tier" money are Dupree and Shazier, but we probably don't need to worry about signing them to big contracts for very different reasons. Of course, now we don't have a player there either, so that only "solves" our salary cap problems in the same way that Ziggy Hood or Jason Worilds solved them. But that may let us keep Bryant, for example.

Really the only thing you can do when you get to the point we will be in about 1-2 seasons is to have some players in the bottom cap tier fill the on-field spots of guys in the top two tiers. Normally your medium-to-highly paid guys cover about 18 or 19 slots - so like 16 starters, a couple backups, and in our case, the kicker. So we've got to find five starters and five important backups from among the rest, and the rest are special teamers and bench players who don't matter a lot. In 3 years, that'll be more like we've got to find seven starters and seven backups from that pool. That's how you end up with things like Ryan Mundy and Jonathan Dwyer playing extended snaps. If you're really lucky Ryan Mundy is Richard Sherman instead, and Landry Jones is Dak Prescott, and you fixed it.

In general, I think doing some restructuring can work if you know you're competing for a championship - it can pay off if you have a draft bust or two on your hands who you know aren't getting big money, or if you hit on a lot of draft picks in the upcoming years. But if you gamble and lose, then someone emerges as a top-tier player and you lose him without having a choice, or you're plugging in cheap players to important roles and praying that they don't suck.


Mitchell, Gay, Golden, Wilcox, DHB, and Golden are the main cuts. I realize that is a bit unrealistic because it absolutely guts the safety group -- but honestly in a perfect world all the safeties on this team would be replaced!

You cut Golden twice. He must've really pissed you off!

[Mojouw]

Ahh.

I think we could gain some money also by extending Haden three years (makes him 31 at the end of his contract) and pushing a little of next years salary into the back end that contract while giving him a bonus the following year to entice him. Also, and although it'll never happen, the Steelers should bring Ben in and tell him, "So, you want three more years? Okay, we'll extend your contract, push cap money into that last year and pay you a few million for that last year as well. This way, we get to keep your weapons around you and build a defense to get you at least one, if not two or three more rings." At this point in his career, I think he says yes to that deal. I agree with cutting Gay. He was a good player for us, but we have enough young CBs coming up now. I also think we should cut Sensabaugh. He's not worth the cap hit. I'd keep either Golden or Wilcox precisely so we don't gut the safeties. But, we need to go find one in the draft.




You cut Golden twice. He must've really pissed you off!

That was supposed to be Sensabaugh! But really what's the difference between the two? Also, I would cut Golden twice if I could. :lol:

Agreed that if you start restructuring and/or extending some key high priced guys - you clear cap in a hurry. Especially if Ben signs an extension focused on cap relief.

Also, Steel Reserve, your comments on restructures and long term cap $$$ are really useful.