Curious as to how much cap space we have now that Ben has restructured? Will we be able to plug the C, LT, or ILB position in free agency now?
Curious as to how much cap space we have now that Ben has restructured? Will we be able to plug the C, LT, or ILB position in free agency now?
Not much. But they will be able to sign some mid tier average veteran starters to minimums deals for one year.
Other sports have experienced FA with a lower salary cap. What happens is that stars get paid. And quickly. Then everyone else signs super cheap one year deals hoping to play well and cash in the following year.
Here is what I foresee:
1. extend TJ
2. re-sign JuJu
3. re-sign either Sutton or Hilton
4. sign Austin Reiter (OC for veteran depth)
5. re-sign either Hilton or Sutton
Well....this is exactly what the team needed. Ben worked with the team and gave them a very friendly deal that works for both parties.
This was the first thing that had to happen to determine how the team is going to attack things going forward. We know they can't keep everyone, but this definitely helps.
Now we have to hope that there will be a bunch of quality free agents that are going to have to settle for cheap, one-year deals to get them to next year when the salary cap will likely go up considerably.
There are already players like Kyle Rudolph and Kyle Van Noye getting released. The market is going to be flooded with talent, and not enough dollars to pay many of them anywhere near what they want.
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It's hard to argue with that based on how well the team drafts wide receivers.
Maybe. He is making tons of money as an influencer. He does not "need" as much money from the NFL.
True. That said, Bud will be expensive.
Highsmith was the second-highest rated edge rookie after Chase Young... and Highsmith will have an off-season to increase his strength).
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For the same price? Bud
But, IMO, we can sign JuJu, Hilton, AND Sutton for the same price as Bud. (Tennessee is going to back up tohe brinks truck for Bud.)
JuJu hasn’t said anything but that he wants to be paid what he’s worth. Realistically, he is worth $10M/yr. What a cap healthy team like The Jags, Jets, Patriots, etc may throw at him is a different story.
If he’s accept his “real worth”, the Steelers could afford it.
Mike Hilton or Cam Sutton and JuJu is what they need to sign as well as an OLman in free agency if they want to compete. A low budget (Gilden Tate/Willie Snead/etc won’t cut it). A back can be found in the first round and a couple other linemen can be found in the draft or free agency (Feiler).
The only cuts that would make sense to me in terms of saving money is Vince Williams and Joe Haden and that's unfortunate because Haden's been great. I doubt this would happen, but it may be something they have to do.
Edit...Ebron would also make sense from a financial standpoint, but the depth is thin at TE.
What makes even more sense is if they traded VW and Haden for some extra picks. Haden being traded is more likely than Haden getting cut. Not sure how much value VW has, but anything they can get out of him would be great.
Another idea here...if Freirmuth is healthy and available in rd 1 or even 2 then you take him and put Ebron on the trade block on draft day for whatever pick he is worth.
I believe Haden is worth a 3rd or a 4th rd pick, Ebron a 4th or 5th rd pick, and VW a 6th or 7th.
Last edited by RunNGun; 03-04-2021 at 09:09 PM.
That's a start. If I am interpreting the snippets of information that's be put out there they are expecting the cap to settle at about 185. So that would make the Steelers 8 million under the cap. A release and a restructure or two and they should be able to retain and sign a few FA.
This extension says the Steelers will sell their soul to the devil in 2022 for a High draft pick to get Ben's replacement, its putting a band-aid on something the Steelers should have addressed last year.
This is an honest question that I would like to know the answer. Put yourself in one of the big chairs......owner, GM, personnel. What would you do. Would you have cut Ben loose when his elbow gave out? From a financial standpoint that sounds like a possible solution, but you are still caught with owing him a ton of money.....and here’s a man who all he wants is to win SBs. I certainly get annoyed with him, but he has a lot of cred equity with me. I’ll ask this again a couple of more times. What would you do? Who is on the horizon for you and the Steelers. Remember you are in one of the big chairs. Back in early December when we were 11-0 Ben haters said nothing and the rest of us were having a blast. Not sure if this is a good example, but many remember when Tommy Gun lost one game when Ben was hurt, and he and his family got death threats. Really proud moment for many Steelers fans..so what would you do.? Lastly, I was at the game in Baltimore when Suggs knocked Ben’s nose sideways, and we all got to see the trainer fix it, on the Jumbotron. Everyone including me laughed. Blood running everywhere. Ben only missed two plays. So my feeling is, if he would like to play another year or two....I’m for it.
Are you saying that they should have drafted Jalen Hurts in R2 of last year’s draft? Okay. Maybe. Then again, the last tome that they took a QB (Rudolph in R3), Ben’s reaction was less than welcoming.
Thankfully, the 2022 Draft has a bunch of QBs:
Spencer Rattler, Oklahoma
Sam Howell, UNC
Kenny Pickett, Pitt
Tyler Shough, Oregon
D’Eriq King, The U
Bo Nix, Auburn
Kedon Slovis, USC
Jayden Daniels, Arizona St.
Brock Purdy, Iowa St.
Carson Strong, Nevada
I wouldn’t be against the Steelers “selling their soul” (trading their entire draft to move up) for Spencer Rattler.
Ding ding ding. We have 3 viable receivers in DJ, Claypool and Washington, all playing on initial contracts at a good price. Juju is a nice problem to have but I agree with DS that money should be spent on signing Bud. If you look at our collapse last year, yes a lot of it is tied to the offense pooping the bed but it also corresponds to when Bud went down. I've said this before, once Bud went down teams could double team TJ or simply attack Bud's side of the field instead. If we resign Bud and/or Hilton/Sutton, get Bush and Spillane back healthy our defense will dominate again. Our offense was so much better in the beginning of the year when our defense was giving them a short field to work with.
If we draft #1: OL, #2: RB, #3: TE we will be a much better well rounded team (assuming we actually have a real offensive coordinator who wants to run the ball). I don't want to see Ben throwing it 30 times a game anymore unless we are trailing.
Agreed. Only thing is how disappointing was DJ last year? Led the NFL in drops with 10. Ebron credited with 4 which seems generous. Claypool is the clear 1, Washington 2 and DJ in the slot I think it will be.
I can't see Juju coming back. Ebron is basically a WR as well.
Juju will get 10+ but not from the Steelers. People saying he would play for 5 are way off. No way he turns down millions and millions of dollars to stay and... play with which QB next year?!
This year the WRs play with Ben. They will have big stats for recs but not yards or TD. Next year they will have terrible, terrible production with Haskins or Rudolph as it stands.
Juju is a smart guy. I don't see how he will stay without a massive payout. Staying to play with Rudolph again when his stat line was 42 552 and 3 in 2019... nope.
...
Ben just allowed the Steelers to re-sign Dupree. Clearing up $15M will go to Dupree I'm sure.
I think the Steelers were prepared to cut Ben if he didn't renegotiate, but he has always renegotiated.
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Agreed. Only thing is how disappointing was DJ last year? Led the NFL in drops with 10. Ebron credited with 4 which seems generous. Claypool is the clear 1, Washington 2 and DJ in the slot I think it will be.
I can't see Juju coming back. Ebron is basically a WR as well.
Juju will get 10+ but not from the Steelers. People saying he would play for 5 are way off. No way he turns down millions and millions of dollars to stay and... play with which QB next year?!
This year the WRs play with Ben. They will have big stats for recs but not yards or TD. Next year they will have terrible, terrible production with Haskins or Rudolph as it stands.
Juju is a smart guy. I don't see how he will stay without a massive payout. Staying to play with Rudolph again when his stat line was 42 552 and 3 in 2019... nope.
...
Ben just allowed the Steelers to re-sign Dupree. Clearing up $15M will go to Dupree I'm sure.
I think the Steelers were prepared to cut Ben if he didn't renegotiate, but he has always renegotiated.
I can see the logic of letting JuJu go (because, we draft WRs very well).
I can see JuJu going to the Chargers getting $15 million/year, being used outside, and putting up monster numbers with Justin Herbert.
But, who said he would play for $5 million???
I'm trying to give you a chance, but you consistently misread/cherry-pick certain words. JuJu would not be playing for $5 million; he would "count against the cap" for $5 million. Let me put it a better way:
$34 million, 4 years ($20 million in signing bonus)
2021 - $5 million counts against the cap
2022 - $10 million
2023 - $10 million
2024 - $14 million (which would undoubtedly get restructured).