Category Archives: Steelers Contracts

Report: Steelers Rework Heath Miller’s Contract

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According to Ian Rapoport, the Steelers have reworked Heath Miller’s contract to create needed cap space for 2014.

2014 is the final year of  Heath’s contract, so a traditional restructuring isn’t an option.  I posted previously that I expect the Steelers to extend Heath’s contract. The Steelers restructured Miller’s contract  in September to make additional cap room for the 2013 season.

Traditional restructuring reduces the player’s base salary and rolls it over into a signing bonus, thus reducing the cap number for that year. Since Heath is in the final year of his contract, obviously his salary cannot be pushed forward without extending the duration of his contract.

Here are Heath’s 2014 numbers before today’s moves:

[table]

Player, Base Salary, Signing Bonus, Salary Cap Number

“Miller, Heath”, “$6,020,000”, “$3,446,500”, “$9,466,500”

[/table]

I’ll post Heath’s contract details when more information becomes available.

Cortez Allen Earned The Proven Performance Escalator In His Contract

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Cortez Allen has earned the Proven Performance Escalator in his contract. The PPE is an escalator that’s built into all contracts of players signed after the second round of the draft. To earn the escalator, the player has to have played for 35% of their team’s cumulative snaps in his first three seasons, or must have played for 35% of the team’s snaps for 2 out of 3 seasons.

Since Allen did play for over 35% of the team’s cumulative snaps for the past two seasons, he earns the escalator. Basically, his 2014 salary jumps from $645,000 to $1,389,000. That number is the lowest restricted free agent tender determined by the CBA. After adding his guaranteed signing bonus, his 2014 salary cap number is $1,486,875.

34 other players who were selected in rounds 3 though 7 of the 2011 NFL draft earned their Proven Performance Escalators as well.

Looking At The 2014 Steelers NFL Compensatory Picks

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There has been a lot of conversation about the NFL compensatory pick process lately, and how many comp picks the Steelers might get in 2014. Hopefully, I can shed a little light on it as I take a closer look at how the NFL determines compensatory picks.

What Are Compensatory Picks?

I have a bad habit of assuming what’s common knowledge and what’s not, so I’ll start from scratch. The NFL awards compensatory draft picks (“comp” picks) to teams to compensate them for the loss of free agents during the previous off season. So, the picks the Steelers are awarded for the 2014 NFL draft are for the losses of free agents before the 2013 season. Teams gain additional picks at the end of the appropriate regular draft rounds.

How Are NFL Compensatory Picks Determined?

The exact formula the NFL uses to determine compensation isn’t publicly available. No one outside the league headquarters can definitively say what picks will be awarded. Some of their deciding factors are public knowledge however, and other details can be pieced together based on history leaving you able to make a fairly accurate educated guess. In the end, it’s about net free agent loss. Here are some of the main determining factors:

  • Players signed to non-qualifying,  minimum or low salaries do not factor.
  • Players that are cut do not count. Also, non-tendered restricted free agents or exclusive rights free agents aren’t considered.
  • Each player signed cancels out a player lost.
  • The round of the pick awarded is primarily decided by the average annual value of the contract signed. Free agent players signed cancel out lost players with equal contracts, then lower contracts, before eventually canceling out higher contracts.

When Does The NFL Announce Compensatory Picks?

The NFL typically announces comp picks via a press release in March prior to the draft.

How Many Compensatory Picks Can A Team Receive?

Four picks is the maximum compensation that a team can receive.

Can The Team Trade The Awarded Picks To Move Up In The Draft?

No, that would be great, but compensatory picks cannot be traded.

How Many Comp Picks Will The Steelers Receive For The 2014 Draft?

I believe they’ll receive 2. I’m inclined to believe that they’ll receive a 3rd round comp pick for Mike Wallace, and 5th round pick for the loss of Keenan Lewis.

Let’s look at the contracts of what I believe are the qualifying free agent gains and losses.

2013 Steelers Qualifying Free Agent Losses

Mike Wallace- Signed by the Dolphins to a 5 year, $60 Mil contract, including $30 Mil guaranteed.

Keenan Lewis- Signed by the Saints to a 5 year, $25 Mil deal, including $10.5 Mil guaranteed with several escalators.

Rashard Mendenhall- Signed by the Cardinals to a one year, $2.5 Mil contract, with $500,000 guaranteed.

2013 Steelers Qualifying Free Agent Gains

Bruce Gradkowski- Signed by the Steelers to a 3 year, $4.1 Mil contract, including $850,000 guaranteed.

Noteworthy transaction- Will Allen was signed to a one year deal by the Cowboys, but was cut in November, and re-signed by the Steelers.

While factors such as playing time and post-season honors are said to be considered in the NFL’s formula, I don’t believe they carry significant consideration, or are even considered all of the time. Also, players who are placed on IR seem to be a factor sometimes, while not carrying any consideration other times.

To use our hated division foes as an example, the Ravens lost Ben Grubbs, Jarret Johnson, Brandon McKinney, Haruki Nakamura, Cory Redding, and Tom Zbikowski in 2012, while gaining Sean Considine, and Corey Graham. They received the maximum 4 compensatory picks in the 2013 draft. As compensation, they were awarded a 4th, a 5th, a 6th, and a 7th. While this is only one example, and without getting too detailed in terms of their contracts, the losses and gains in terms of cap dollars and contract lengths aren’t equal. They simply lost 6, gained 2 and got 4.

It is a possibility that the Steelers will be awarded more for Lewis, possibly a 4th, but I’m inclined to believe he’ll return a 5th round comp pick. Feel free to ask if there’s anything I left out or if there’s something that needs clarifying.

Contrary To Reports, Ben Roethlisberger Likely To Be Extended This Year

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Stories are being spun out about Ben Roethlisberger not getting extended this year, or possibly even next, after Art Rooney II met with reporters yesterday. Here’s what Mr. Rooney had to say about the possibility of extending Ben this off-season:

“It’s not set in stone. We’ve done it in the past on a couple of occasions, but it’s not necessarily something that’s automatic. I believe we’ll get something done when it’s appropriate for both sides. I think Ben knows that it’s our intention to have him here beyond his current contract, whenever we get [an extension] done.” He added, “The only thing I would say about Ben and his situation is I certainly expect that at some point we will do a contract, whether it’s this season, or after next season, or after the season after that, but I think Ben will be playing here beyond the current contract.”

That’s it. Pretty innocuous, right? I’m not sure how national reporters or even Steelers bloggers are coming to the conclusion that he won’t be extended based on that. It should come as no surprise that Mr. Rooney’s interview responses are going to be guarded and non-committal. What would he have to gain from publicly divulging the organization’s specific contract intentions?

The fact of the matter is that the Steelers don’t have a whole lot of options frankly. The 2014 salary cap situation is such that a big part of the Steelers off season plans are likely going to center, in part, around extending Big Ben to reduce his 2014 salary cap hit.  By extending Ben Roethlisberger during this off-season, the Steelers could easily reduce his 2014 cap hit of $18,895,000 by 4 or 5 million dollars. Furthermore, Art II flat out said, “We’ve got to have Ben retire as a Steeler…there’s no doubt about that.”

As with most things, nothing in the NFL is certain, but I would be pretty surprised if they don’t announce that they’ve agreed on an extension with him in the coming months.

2014 Steelers Free Agents

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The Pittsburgh Steelers have 21 unrestricted free agents, and 1 exclusive rights free agent in 2014. We are approximately $15 Mil over the 2014 projected cap of  $126.3 Mil, while having 43 players currently under contract.

Steelers 2014 Free Agents

[table sort=”desc,asc” width=”300″ colwidth=”20|280″ colalign=”left|center”]

Pos, Player

LB, Jason Worilds

S, Ryan Clark

DE,   Brett Keisel

WR, Emmanuel Sanders

DE,    Ziggy Hood

WR,   Jerricho Cotchery

OL ,   Fernando Velasco

S,   Will Allen

RB,   Jonathan Dwyer

LS,  Greg Warren

WR,  Plaxico Burress

TE,  David Johnson

RB,  Felix Jones

P,   Matt McBriar

OL,   *Eric Olsen

TE,   Michael Palmer

RB,  LaRod Stephens-Howling

LB,   Stevenson Sylvester

OL,   Cody Wallace

DE,    Jamaal Westerman

OL,    Guy Whimper

LB,    Kion Wilson

DT,  Al Woods [/table]

Needless to say, some of these players will not wear a Steelers uniform in 2014. I’ll take a more in depth look at these free agents in the near future.

*Olsen is an Exlusive Rights Free Agent. If he is tendered, it will most likely be for a minimum, non-guaranteed one year deal.

Steelers Restructure Ike Taylor’s Contract

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The Steelers have restructured Ike Taylor’s contract to free up cap space. The team was getting dangerously low in terms of cap room, so a restructure was a necessary evil to free up funds for possible injury replacements. The move creates an additional $1,488,236 in cap space for 2013. According to Ian Whetstone, the Steelers dropped his base salary to the vet minimum, and rolled the rest (apx $2.976 Mil) into a signing bonus.

Before the restructure, the Steelers were only about $247,000 under the cap. Isaac Redman’s salary of $ 1.323 Mil was fully guaranteed, and signing Kion Wilson cost the team a little under $330,000. Now, the team has $1,735,390 in cap space to operate with for the remainder of the 2013 season.

Ike Taylor’s numbers for 2013 and 2014 now look like this:

Year  Base Salary      Bonus           Cap Number   Dead Money
2013 $940,000       $4,942,401   $7,965,930    $9,884,805
2014 $7,000,000  $4,942,404  $11,942,404   $4,942,404

Levi Brown’s Contract Was Reworked Pre-Trade

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The biggest concern about trading for Levi Brown was the considerable salary cap hit and likely “can kicking” to make room for his salary this year. Those concerns can be put to rest. Bob Labriola reports that Brown’s contract was reworked with the Cardinals before the trade. His contract will be for the veteran minimum, and will only count $840,000  $715,000 towards the 2013 Steelers salary cap, prorated across the next 13 weeks. A trade that drew negative criticism by the media this morning, should be drawing praise tonight.

Updated- By my calculations, the prorated portion of Brown’s salary is $546,765. Due to displacement, the Steelers available salary cap should only go down by $189,412, because of Green’s release yesterday.

Looking At Levi Brown’s Salary Cap Implications

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For those who might be wondering what the salary cap implications of the Levi Brown trade look like, here is a breakdown of  the 2013 numbers.

As of last night, the Steelers have $1,858,498 in available cap room. By acquiring Brown, the team will take on $3.63 Mil for this year’s salary cap. There is no signing bonus money liability involved for the Steelers, so if he doesn’t work out after this season, the team can part ways without further financial obligation.

According to Adam Schefter, the deal is for a late round pick, which, if true, is better than what initial reports were speculating. Possible options to make room for Brown’s salary cap hit include restructuring Troy or Ike Taylor’s contracts, or extending Ryan Clark. It will be interesting to see what moves the team makes to clear the cap space for this transaction. I’ll post the details as soon as they’re available.

 

https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/385432834715836416

Steelers Salary Cap & Steelers Contracts | Heath Gets Restructured

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Update- See all of the Steelers contracts and Steelers salary cap related news here:  Steelers Salary Cap

The team restructured Heath Miller’s contract yesterday to free up cap space for recent signings. Going into Tuesday, the Steelers only had approximately $1.5 million in available cap space, so the team really had little choice but to restructure after getting hit by the injury tsunami on Sunday. None of the three players who required surgery this week had split contracts that would provide cap relief to the team in case of injury.

$3,187,500 of Heath’s $5,162,000 2013 base salary was converted into a prorated signing bonus. The move freed up just under $1.6 Mil of cap room this year. Heath’s salary cap numbers for 2013 and 2014 are as follows:

[table id=16 /]

Here are the financials for the signings the team made this week:

Base Salary Cap Number
Jonathan Dwyer~  $630,000 $592,941
Fernando Velasco~ $715,000 $522,353
Shayne Graham~  $940,000 $522,353

The three signings combined cost the team $1,637,647, so before restructuring Heath Miller’s contract, the signings were not possible. As of right now, the team has $1,385,253 in salary cap space, and that includes restructuring Heath.

 

Report: Jonathan Dwyer Re-Signed For Vet Minimum

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According to Ed Bouchette, Jonathan Dwyer’s salary is $630,000. As I said the other day,  Dwyer’s contract would likely be for the vet minimum. What Ed doesn’t say is whether or not the deal includes a signing bonus. It wouldn’t be terribly surprising if it didn’t, but I did expect the terms to include a small one. Either way, the front office knows how to bargain shop.

Edit- There was indeed no signing bonus money included in his contract.

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