Steelers temporarily 'capping' problems
By Jamison Hensley
February, 27, 2012
The Pittsburgh Steelers have kept the core of their team together to make another Super Bowl run -- at a cost.
The NFL's busiest team this offseason, the Steelers whacked $25 million in three weeks by restructuring the contracts of five players. This got Pittsburgh under the cap this year, but the $25 million doesn't just disappear. The chunk of cap change gets spread over future years.
What it boils down to is this: The Steelers got themselves out of cap jail today by handcuffing themselves in the future. These moves are putting pressure on the Steelers to win now.
"As a former cap manager in the NFL for 10 years, I know that if you want to make something work for one year, you can," ESPN NFL business analyst Andrew Brandt said. "It’s just a question of how much pain are you pushing off to the future."
The first real pinch will come in 2013, when the Steelers could be anywhere from $10 million to $15 million over the cap depending on the limit next year. Add that to having three starters on offense becoming unrestricted free agents: wide receiver Mike Wallace (if he doesn't go elsewhere this year as a restricted free agent), running back Rashard Mendenhall and tight end Heath Miller.
Adding to the Steelers' potential cap woes for 2013, Antonio Brown will become a restricted free agent after the upcoming season.
Pittsburgh will have to either find cap room to re-sign these players, look for cheaper replacements in free agency or hope someone already on the roster can take their spots. Plus, wide receiver Antonio Brown becomes a restricted free agent in 2013, so the Steelers could be facing another Wallace situation all over again with a limited budget. It looks like there will be tougher decisions in 2013 than this year.
(Read More:) http://espn.go.com/blog/afcnorth/post/_/id/43083/steelers-only-temporarily-capping-problems
_________________
-"I stand corrected... But I absolutely and wholeheartedly fart
in the general direction of almost every other thing you have posted to this point."-
Let's just get through this season. we'll deal with 2013 this time next year.
