The moves came quickly and furiously during the afternoon of Monday, March 15, when the period of legal adulteration began for the 2021 NFL season. While some teams were great players, others were not. In typical Steelers style, Pittsburgh’s only move was to retain one of its own players.
Unfortunately, Steelers lost two matches of the 2020 season on day 1 of the free agency’s subscription period. Bud Dupree signed a five-year contract with the Tennessee Titans for $ 16.5 million a year, while Matt Feiler agreed to the terms of the Los Angeles Chargers for three years for $ 7 million a season.
On the positive side of things, Steelers hired cornerback Cameron Sutton for a $ 9 million two-year contract, which will feature $ 2.75 million against the 2021 salary cap. After accounting for the list shift, Sutton added just $ 2.09 million to the Steelers’ salary cap for 2021.
So, where are the Steelers currently with the 2021 salary cap? Before the start of the free agency, the Steelers were just over $ 6 million below the salary cap. Since then, the Steelers have hired wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud and striker BJ Finney, as well as Sutton. Unfortunately, Finney’s contract numbers have not yet been entered, so they cannot be taken into account at this time. As for McCloud, his salary is believed to be $ 1 million, which will count as $ 340,000 for the salary cap after accounting for the list shift.
As a reminder, the shift shift is taking into account only the 51 main contracts for a team that count towards the salary cap during the off-season. As a larger contract enters the books, it eliminates a smaller contract from the top 51. Therefore, it is only the difference in these contracts that increases the number of the salary cap.
Using the numbers from Cam Sutton and Ray-Ray McCloud and how they raised the Steelers’ salary cap, they should be sitting around $ 3.5 million in maximum space. But what do the wage cap websites say?
According to overthecap.com, the Steelers are under $ 2,775,086 below the salary cap. The OTC has the contracts for Sutton and McCloud in the books, but for some reason they have fewer than they should be. Even when added to the Steelers’ 51 highest salaries and the dead money owed this year, their own numbers don’t make sense to go where they are. The only explanation is that they are taking into account the business of BJ Finney, although it is not known at the time and has not listed it.
Another reliable salary cap site is spotrac.com, which has Steelers for $ 3,836,703 below the ceiling. Spotrac has the contract for Cam Sutton, but not for McCloud or Finney. If McCloud’s deal is really worth $ 1 million, the cost of $ 340,000 after moving the list moves the Steelers ceiling to $ 3,496,703, which should be the case based on the two moves that Steelers did.
When it comes to Finney’s maximum number of salaries, it will cost the Steelers, even though the contract has closed more than $ 660,000. Until this figure is released, an exact salary cap amount cannot be determined. If I were to guess, I don’t see the Finneys business costing much more than McClouds if the Steelers played their cards the right way.
While the Steelers are going to need roof space for a number of things this off-season, it doesn’t have to be now. After the NFL draft, Steelers will start signing their draft choices and are estimated to need $ 3.2 million in capitalization space once they calculate the roster offset. But keep in mind that the Steelers will not need that amount until at least May. In addition, the Steelers will need an additional $ 10 million in September, when they will need to account for all 53 players on the roster, sign their training team and have some transportation to do business throughout the year.
So the Steelers have a little bit of space at the moment, about $ 3.5 million, but it’s not much to make any noise at the free agency. While there are many things they can do to help with the wage cap number, such as extensions, restructurings or releases, the Steelers still have a lot of work to do with players already under contract to be in the best wage cap situation for the 2021 season. .