APTackle Marcus Gilbert isn’t the only Steelers player reworking his contract this offseason.
Per multiple reports, safety Mike Mitchell has also agreed to restructure his deal as the Steelers try to create more cap room for the 2015 season. Mitchell was due a $2 million roster bonus that will be converted into a signing bonus along with a portion of his salary in order to spread his cap hit out over the life of the five-year deal he signed last season.
Center Maurkice Pouncey is also expected to finalize a restructuring of his deal. He’s due a $3.75 million roster bonus and was set to count $8.1 million against the cap. Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that the Steelers are expected to clear a little less than $10 million from their 2015 cap as a result of the three moves.
That money could go toward a new deal for impending free agent linebacker Jason Worilds and the Steelers may make more moves, including a possible extension for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, that would free up further money.
I’m all for having more cap room and all that jazz but I’m still irritated by some of these contracts in the first place. A big reason why the Steelers have had cap issues these past few years is b/c of restructuring everybody’s contracts and living in the present. Also the Cortez Allen contract was a travesty
rationalfootballfan almost every team has these caps issues i think they are stupid and should be taken away
Go ahead and keep kicking that can down the road, Kevin.
As far as the rest of the AFC is concerned, we hope you and your cap management skills are there for the next thousand years.
If the contracts weren’t so bad to begin with there’d be no reason for all this restructuring EVERY year.. But Mitchell needs to return some $ after that Horrible season he had
doesn’t matter – worilds is going to the titans.
I don’t know why we are doing this. Cutting Troy, Cam Thomas, Keisel and giving Ben a contract extension should give cap room. If this is for Worilds….I hope we aren’t planning on over paying him.
blackngold4life…I think they do these contracts with the expectation of restructuring them later
They kick the can down the road like the best of them.
So many NFL GM’s here……..out of work.
If Jacoby was a Steeler he’d of been extended to a new five year deal today.
Nightrain42 .. I wouldn’t doubt it. That’s like overdrawing ya bank account every week just cause u get paid on Fridays ..I know every team uses this practice but it’s usually for super stars and bro bowlers
Always bragging about multiple Super Bowls…..Maybe those SB’s can get them under the cap
zwhateverz says:
Feb 25, 2015 6:12 PM
Go ahead and keep kicking that can down the road, Kevin.
As far as the rest of the AFC is concerned, we hope you and your cap management skills are there for the next thousand years.
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I love it when know-it-alls criticize Colbert. I’m not saying he’s the best FO executive in the history of the league, but let’s look at the results since he took over:
7x AFC North Division champs
3x AFC Conference champs
2x Super Bowl champs
Also consider the fact that since Colbert took over, exactly 4 different AFC teams have won the Super Bowl; 3 of them are multi-time champs. The Steelers are one of those teams.
I’m sure you’re the big man in your fantasy football league, but leave the real football stuff to real football men.
A new deal for Ben, Clears up about $9 million
Releasing Thomas, Troy and Keisel about another $9 million.
Sounds like Pittsburgh may be making a run at some free agents!
And the league always hails this guy as a genius. Look at our last few drafts. Big genius…
Keep the beard n James at minimum drop Troy to minimum deft cb first then go all out on olb n ️grab a cb in free agency .drop Allen drop the lil guy dri n get back to real steeler football n lets worlds go. Everyone else who leaves Pitt never lives up to how they played in Pitt.
hakunamangata, Jones would be lucky to be listed 4th on the Steelers WR depth chart. Heck either Smith would be lucky to be 4th on that list.
Oh yeah drop Adams too man can’t play n never will be able to play offense is super. ️️Grab hinkly n go all out on defense build the steel curtain again that teams were afraid to go up against.
I ment drop Jarvis n Adams ️️grab hickey n a cb then bust lose on olb all the way.
Steelers Front office one of the best in the business.
Some teams always skirt the cap Den NE Pitt ??? They push it down the road and it never catches up with them?? The other teams play be the rules and eventually they are forced to pay the piper.
Grossly mismanaging the cap wouldn’t be so damaging for the steelers if they could actually draft, but they keep taking the likes of Jarvis Jones and Ryan Shazier. As a Ravens fan, I’d like to thank Colbert for drafting Shazier though, it let the ravens get a far superior player a couple of picks later.
I’m amazed a team with so little talent has such cap problems.
MostcensoredposteronPFT…..please….its way too early to say that. Mosley had a great rookie year…but shazier has some very special gifts. Can’t wait to see him healthy for a year
You can only pass the buck for so long. Eventually this will bite them in the rear. Who’s managing the cap over there in Steel town? Thumbs down.
At some point, the front office needs to realize that they have a bitter pill to swallow over the course of a season or two and just let the cap hits happen. They keep swiping the credit card, which is fine…in theory, if you’re managing the cap well and have good contracts on the books. But they don’t. They keep overpaying for marginal and/or aging talent, and then just push the problems into the future when the new league year starts.
I say this as a dedicated Steelers fan: just let it happen. I’ll forgive a down year or two if it will put an end to these incessant restructurings.
“cinvis says: Feb 25, 2015 7:49 PM
I’m amazed a team with so little talent has such cap problems.”
The rest of us are amazed at how little you know about football, the salary cap, and the Steelers history re: talent (you might want to look up the last time the Steelers finished under .500 for starters). But thanks for showing you lack of knowledge.
How did Pitt ever allow star DE’s like Elvis Dumervil and Demarcus Ware to fall into the laps of Balt & Den (two of their key rivals in the AFC). That should never happen. Face it boys, Ozzie Newsome at Balt and John Elway at Denver beat Pitt to the punch at this crucial position. Not having an elite DE is the glaring reason that keeps Pitt from being a FORCE in the playoffs. It allows awful teams like NYJ and TB and Cle to pull off upsets by driving the length of the field in the last minute to win.
Can anybody elaborate on how & why Pitt didn’t jump all over these guys? Did they even try? Were they even aware they were available? This should never happen.
m1k3g says:
Feb 25, 2015 6:49 PM
I love it when know-it-alls criticize Colbert. I’m not saying he’s the best FO executive in the history of the league, but let’s look at the results since he took over
———-
I’m Not a Steelers fan but I am curious how long that has been
I’ve always wondered who actually calls the shots for the Steelers on draft day. Does Colbert have unilateral control? The drafting was better during the Cowher era than the Tomlin era.
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They are paying Woodley 8M this year in dead money, sad. What’s even sadder is that it’s the right move. No point in keeping him around.
I hate how they restructure and just save the problem for a later time, I’d rather them just cut the players who are declining instead.
I’ll spell out how this restructuring of contracts works for those that do not understand. Restructuring deals the way the Steelers are doing never seem to catch up to them because it really never does!
They’re re-doing these deals with the understanding that the salary cap will also increase incrementally over the years of the new deal. So the analogy that the Steelers, and most every NFL team, are just “swiping credit cards” is so wrong…it’s more like making a big purchase with your credit card knowing your dad is going to be there to throw you money to pay the balance down.
Steelers haven’t been the same team since doctor pump em up with HGH was fired.
Pittsburgh continues to put a good, if not great, team on the field year after year. They won the AFC North in 2014. All of these guys who think they know something about cap management are blowhards. Baltimore also puts a good, if not great, team on the field as well. When the chickens come home to roost on Seattle and whatever the flavor of the year is, these teams will still be putting out a superior product. When you are always drafting at the bottom of round 1, it takes extraordinary talent in the back office to be in the thick of it year after year.
It ALL starts with Colberts drafts.
Other than Heyward, none of his 1st rd picks have panned out. His 2nd rd picks never work out, he might as well just trade that pick away.
His mid-rd picks are so bad that no other team wants them after the Steelers cut them.
The poor drafting forces the Steelers to go the FA route for positions of need. Since the Steelers ALWAYS go cheap, their FA signees have minimal impact.
So the end result is the Steelers put themselves in a position where they have no choice but to overpay just to keep bad players on the team just for depth and they keep players way past their prime.
Revamp the entire scouting dept, focus of drafting better, try to sign PROVEN players as FAs, and cut the cord when players start declining.
shouldn’t this team been focusing their efforts on the draft?
Big Ben would make any GM look good! Colbert has had some bad drafts the last few years and part of the problem is Art Rooney II aka Jerry Jones Jr minus the BIG MOUTH.
Plus, Blount should never have been released. They should have placed on a suspended list. He also left the field with under 30 seconds remaining. The Pats’ are still laughing at the Steelers for that move.
Kevin Colbert needs to be fired pronto. Dude is painfully incompetent.
You have to just trust your guy like the Ravens fans trust Ozzie.
Pittsburgh always does a great job by not over-paying players but still producing a competitive powerful team. It is espcially difficult when Cincy and the Browns continually got top-round picks for years – but I think they’re finally turning it aorund.
Our division just keeps getting better every year.
all i hear from steelers fans is how the ravens are in such cap trouble.look at your team first before talking about others…
I’ve never heard it explaind any better! 100% on the button
steelers should trade ben and save a ton of cash, in his last 4 years no playoff wins, in two other years no playoffs, and when they needed him to step up in this years playoff game with bell hurt he played terrible !!! cut your losses steelers !
Colbert is giving too many restructured deals to non-core players. And that’s because he has missed on so many draft picks the last 4 years.
Mitchell is a bum and he proved it last season. They would have been wised to cut their losses and let Mitchell go.
I hope when they restructure Mitchells contract, I hope they add a clause requiring him to play defense.
I guess I hope alot.
Troy Polamalu is $6M against Steelers cap.
What a bargain!
Colbert is a genius!
Haha!
Colbert is the best thing that ever happened to the Ravens.
Ben restructures every year and they continue to pay old players like Polamalu.
Couple that with mediocre draft picks and choosing guys like Shazier over DROY Mosely and we all see why the Steelers have been playing second fiddle to the Ravens for the past 5 years.
If we had 4-5 pro bowlers every year I could see us being over the cap EVERY year and havin to restructure contracts EVERY year.. Just shows they have been payin either too much to lots of mediocre players or too much to a few players over the last 10 years.. Bright spot is they should be a lot more flexible in 2016 and beyond. Most of those bloated contracts are gona be gone.. HOPEFULLY
Pittsburgh is in much better shape, with cap compliance than the last few seasons. The restructures probably have more to do with being able to sign some free agents. I have faith in Colbert balancing the books , not so much in his defensive picks.
I guess most don’t get it — trying to keep a core group that had many great/very good players together, while also paying a top QB isn’t easy with a cap…. and that hurt them for a few years after those guys moved on and passed their prime. Unless you’d rather be a patriots, ravens, packers or seahawks fan past few years- what is there to complain about? From an earlier comment regarding Colbert – I guess Bell was another of the ‘bad’ 2nd round picks? I’d say picking wr’s Brown (5th) and Bryant (4th) isn’t too bad either.
Steelers are probably going through a cycle where they will basically have to bite the bullet and rebuild. They’re good enough to do it in three years. Some teams take forever. Patriots will be paying for that SB win this season. I bet Revis is gone. They can’t afford him.
hakunamangata, Jones would be lucky to be listed 4th on the Steelers WR depth chart. Heck either Smith would be lucky to be 4th on that list……
But the Ravens went in and beat the Steelers soundly. And will be better this season.