Looking ahead: Steelers 2016 salary cap and free agents
By Simon Chester
The signing of Jacoby Jones and release of Dri Archer on Thursday were yet more moves to an ever changing roster this season and ones that impacted the Steelers salary cap both this year and next.
Last week we took a look at the teams current salary cap situation. This week we turn our attention to the Steelers cap position for 2016 and it very quickly becomes clear that a little dead money from the release of Archer is the least of their problems.
First the good news …
The Steelers will open the 2016 season with the least amount of dead money they have had on their books in sometime. As it stands the Steelers are set to carry $765,187 in dead money next year, a figure that should not be expected to increase much at all over coming months, barring some unforeseen and surprising cut to an established player.
Now the bad …
The Steelers will face a number of challenging decision as they begin the new year with one of the lowest amounts of cap space in the league. As of today only the New England Patriots*, Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills and New Orleans Saints have less cap space available next year and based on number of players under contract, the Steelers have less cap room than the Patriots* in all reality.
In the table below we have detailed the players and contracts that make up the Steelers 2016 salary cap. For this purpose we have worked off an expected league wide salary cap of $150 million. It is possibly a slightly conservative estimate for next year but is a good starting point to work from.
to read rest of article:
http://steelerswire.usatoday.com/2015/11/11/steelers-salary-cap-2016-free-agents-update-status-projections/
