The Steelers have been quite busy this week agreeing to terms with unrestricted free agents and re-signing some of their own players.
Wednesday, as the new league year began at 4 p.m., the Steelers parted ways with one of their own players, terminating the contract of offensive tackle Zach Banner.
The move saves the Steelers $5 million against their 2022 salary cap.
Banner, 28, won the starting right tackle job for the Steelers in 2020 in a training camp battle with Chuks Okorafor. But he suffered a torn ACL in the regular season opener against the Giants and has not started a game since.
Okorafor, meanwhile, has locked down the team's right tackle spot and was given a three-year, $29.25 million contract earlier this week.
Banner, a former fourth-round pick of the Colts, now is free to sign with another team. But he played just five offensive snaps in 2021 while continuing to recover from the torn ACL.
The Steelers were estimated to have approximately $17 million in salary cap space before releasing Banner. That total includes free agent guard James Daniels' $4.1 million cap hit.
But they must have room to add quarterback Mitch Trubisky, offensive lineman Mason Cole and cornerback Levi Wallace to the contracts agreed to earlier this week in the legal tampering period.
Those deals, coupled with the space created with the release of Banner, should leave the Steelers with approximately $10 to $12 million in remaining cap space.
But the team also can create an additional $7.8 million by releasing linebacker Joe Schobert, though they also could simply ask him to take a pay cut from his $8.75-million base salary in 2022.
The Steelers also can easily create cap space by turning base salaries into signing bonus for some players already under contract. A simple restructure with T.J. Watt, for example, would created $17 million in additional cap space.
