Each season over the better part of the past five or so years, the NFL's salary cap has gone up roughly $10 million.
Yet each year, the Steelers find themselves right up against the salary cap, having precious little wiggle room. This year is no different. In fact, as the Steelers are readying to go to training camp in less than three weeks, they have less salary cap space than normal.
Current NFLPA figures have the Steelers with just $985,000 in cap room, a figure at which they have hovered for more than a month now after signing the last of their draft picks.
Forget about signing anyone to contract extensions, the Steelers need to clear some cap space just to have the $3 million or so available that general manager Kevin Colbert likes to have to get through a season.
How did the Steelers get to this point? Let's take a look at that and how they can create that needed cap space moving forward.
The Steelers entered the 2019 offseason with approximately $28 million in cap space. Sounds like a lot, right? For the Steelers, it most certainly was.
But in the grand scheme of things, it still placed them in the bottom third of the league.
Then, Antonio Brown happened. Brown's contract had him set to make $12.65 million in salary in 2019 with a cap hit of $21.2 million thanks to the team renegotiating the deal in 2018 to create cap space.
The team only renegotiated the deal because it felt Brown would be part of the team in 2019. So much for that.
Much of the team's current cap situation stems from that one move.
With Brown traded to the Raiders, he still counts $21.2 million against the salary cap in 2019. Only the Steelers no longer have his services. And they needed to find a replacement.
That turned out to be Donte Moncrief, who was signed to a two-year, $9-million contract in free agency. So, instead of having Brown at a cap hit of $21.2 million, they had Moncrief, essentially at a cap hit of $24.5 million for that receiver spot.
The good news is that Brown's cap hit is off the books after this season. So, it's not all bad.
The Steelers also signed corner Steven Nelson (three years, $25.5 million) and linebacker Mark Barron (two years, $12 million) as outside free agents, bringing the total spent on outside free agents to $11.125 million -- at least in what they count for against this year's salary cap.
Where did the rest of the cap space go?
Well, some went to Ben Roethlisberger's contract extension -- about $5 million -- while the team's rookie draft class cost another $8.25 million. Add in Ramon Foster's new contract (two years, $8.25 million) and the undrafted rookie free agents the team signed following the draft and the money was gone.
Unlike previous years, the Steelers haven't been as quick to renegotiate deals with existing players, perhaps because of what happened with Brown.
But if they are going to sign anyone to an extension before the 2019 season begins -- say, Joe Haden -- they're going to have to likely create some space to do so, unless they can lower that player's cap hit in 2019.
That's the bad news. The good? As previously mentioned, Brown is off the books after this season, as are the contracts of Morgan Burnett, Jon Bostic and Marcus Gilbert. Those contracts, in addition to Brown, mean the Steelers are carrying $26.65 million in dead cap space in 2019 -- money that counts against the cap for players no longer on the team.
As of this writing, the Steelers have no players accounting for dead cap space in 2020. And they have liabilities accounting for $191.5 million. This year's salary cap is $188.2 million, so if the cap goes up by the $10 million or so it has for the better part of this decade, the Steelers won't have to do anything to get under the cap for 2020.
But, that $191.5 million doesn't account for the pending free agents the team has for 2020, including the aforementioned Haden. It also has to make decisions on a number of other players, including starters Sean Davis, Javon Hargrave and Bud Dupree as unrestricted free agents and restricted free agents Matt Feiler and Mike Hilton. Tight end Vance McDonald also has a $6.5-million option for 2020 that the Steelers have to pick up or he becomes an unrestricted free agent, as well.
Sounds like a busy offseason.
The Steelers can get a jump on some of that with a few extensions over the next two months before the regular season begins. Remember, the team has a long-standing policy of not negotiating deals once the regular season begins.
An extension for Haden that could lower his $11.9-million 2019 cap hit would go a long way toward alleviating some of those issues.
That additional cap space would then allow the Steelers to perhaps take care of some other deals.
The release or trade of former first-round pick Artie Burns also would create some additional wiggle room this season. Burns is due a roster bonus of $800,000 right before the start of training camp and counts $3.05 million against the team's salary cap in 2019.
That move, in itself, would give Colbert the $3 million in available cap space he likes to have heading into a season.
Receiver Eli Rogers also could be a cap casualty considering he makes $1.5 million and Ryan Switzer, the player with whom he is battling for a roster spot, is scheduled to make $645,000.
Incumbent punter Jordan Berry ($1.525 million) also makes a good deal more money than the $495,000 of Ian Berryman, the rookie who is in camp as a challenger.
It should make for an interesting training camp. The Steelers rarely have made roster decisions based on monetary issues. But in this camp, that could be the case.
The Steelers have long done a great job of managing their cap right down to the dollar. But the Brown situation this year might force some more difficult decisions.
Related: What's up with Joe Haden's contract?
Related: Ben Roethlisberger signs new deal through 2021
Related: Steelers sign Nelson
Related: Steelers sign Moncrief
Related: Steelers sign Barron
