steelers1080
Footballguy
They will most likely 5th year option Minkah to avoid increasing hit this year. Watt should get extended because they can structure to reduce his hit this year. Hopefully they don't 5th year option Edmunds.
They just signed Hassenauer to a restricted FA deal, but I don't think that eliminates them from resigning Finney. Dotson and DeCastro will be starting guards (hopefully) and some combo of Feiler, Banner, Chuks, and Rookie will be OTs/Cs.
They could restructure/extend the following players to make cap space:
Almost $30 million of this year's cap is gone because of previous restructures. So, yes, the Steelers are able to work cap magic and keep the team together, but there's a cost and we're paying it now. We've already restructured some contracts to limit our cap in the future (Cam & Ben), so we'll see how much more we mortgage our future cap availability. I'm hoping that the team extends players that the FO wants for the long term, and limits restructures.
They just signed Hassenauer to a restricted FA deal, but I don't think that eliminates them from resigning Finney. Dotson and DeCastro will be starting guards (hopefully) and some combo of Feiler, Banner, Chuks, and Rookie will be OTs/Cs.
They could restructure/extend the following players to make cap space:
- DeCastro - $15 mil cap hit, $8.75 mil base salary. Could be extended or cut or traded.
- Tuitt - $9 mil base salary and 1 other year on contract. Could be extended or restructured to reduce from $9 mil.
- Watt - $10 mil base salary. An extension could significantly reduce this cap hit by including a signing bonus/guaranteed money that counts as a hit spread over all the years, and back loaded guaranteed money.
- Vince Williams - $4 mil base salary. Could be cut or extended to reduce slightly. He's 31, so cut is more likely, but we also have very little ILB depth.
- Haden - $7 mil base salary. Could be cut or extended. I think it's more likely he's extended 2-3 years with back loaded money.
- Nelson - $8.25 mil base salary. Could be cut or extended. I didn't think he played great last year, but some film breakdown "experts" think he performed as well as possible under the circumstances after injuries to Dupree and Bush.
- Ebron - $6 mil base salary. Could be extended or cut. Right now I think neither, that the team just holds for 1 more year.
Almost $30 million of this year's cap is gone because of previous restructures. So, yes, the Steelers are able to work cap magic and keep the team together, but there's a cost and we're paying it now. We've already restructured some contracts to limit our cap in the future (Cam & Ben), so we'll see how much more we mortgage our future cap availability. I'm hoping that the team extends players that the FO wants for the long term, and limits restructures.