Skip to content

Salary Cap

Who Wants To Be A Steeler?

  • by

The Pittsburgh Steelers have holes.  Okay, maybe not huge Parkway West size pot holes but they are dangerously thin in terms of depth.  Unfortunately, nobody seems interested in becoming a Steeler.

Former Cincinnati Bengals tight end Reggie Kelly came in for a visit yesterday.  And then left just as quickly as he came.  Over the weekend, wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery also popped in for a quick hello.  He, too, rejoined the ranks of the unemployed shortly thereafter.

Perhaps both players failed to impress the coaching staff.  If that’s the case, then in [intlink id=”23″ type=”category”]Kevin Colbert [/intlink]We Trust.  However, looking at the Steeler’s depth chart, it sure looks like either man would make a nice addition.  Neither are bold faced superstars but at this point beggars can’t be choosers.
Read More »Who Wants To Be A Steeler?

LaMarr Woodley Signs Long-Term Deal

  • by

The Pittsburgh Steelers concluded two weeks of nearly constant contract renegotiations by locking linebacker [intlink id=”70″ type=”category”]LaMarr Woodley[/intlink] in to a six year $61.5 million deal.  This is the fifteenth player who was part of last year’s Super Bowl runners-up to either sign a new deal or rework their existing one since the lock out ended.  Thanks, new CBA.  I wonder if the players have realized yet how badly they got hosed.

Anyway, Mister Woodley was by far the biggest fish left to be fried.  The Steelers tagged him as their Franchise player so he wasn’t going anywhere this season.   However, the $10 million salary associated with that designation put an uncomfortably large dent in the cap.  While you math geniuses may notice he’s still making an average of $10 million per season, $22.5 million of his new contract is being doled out as a signing bonus.  As I’ve mentioned before, this is a clever trick teams do to lower the amount per year a contract counts against the cap.
Read More »LaMarr Woodley Signs Long-Term Deal

Steelers Alter The Deal, Pray They Don’t Alter It Further

  • by

The Pittsburgh Steelers must be in compliance with the 2011 salary cap by Thursday.  As of this morning, they were still approximately $10 million over the target of $120 million plus three $1 million exceptions.  This coupled with a rash of last minute re-signings set off a round of renegotiations with players already under long term contract.

Ben Roethlisberger and James Harrison were the big ticket items who agreed to alter their deals.  Although let’s be clear, neither Big Ben nor Silverback are taking a pay cut.  The Steelers simply employed an accounting trick to help alleviate some of the cap pressure.  Signing bonuses are divided evenly over the term of the contract and that number in addition to the base salary are what count against the cap.  By lowering the annual salary and paying a larger portion of the contract as a signing bonus, you can effectively lower your cap hit without changing the total value of the contract.
Read More »Steelers Alter The Deal, Pray They Don’t Alter It Further