The NFL made yesterday’s rumors official by releasing a memo to all teams today notifying them that the 2014 salary cap is $133 million. This comes in slightly over the $132.3 that was projected yesterday. Last night, I wrote about what the Steelers would need to do to get under the cap if it were $133 Mil. Release Levi Brown. The end.
OK, so things aren’t quite that simple. Releasing Brown does bring the Steelers below the $133 Mil cap limit, but of course, they need to do a lot more than just get in cap compliance. Now that we know the number the team will be working with, we know the team will need to clear roughly $5.67 Mil (by my calculations). This includes dead money already on the books for 2014 and the surplus rollover the team did not use last season. Most of that dead money, which totals $4.55 Mil, is from the release of Willie Colon last year.
After releasing Levi Brown, the team should be down to approximately $580,000 under the salary cap. That’s good, but the team will need to make several other moves to clear the space it will need for the draft pool, free agent signings, injury signings, various roster bonuses, and other miscellaneous operating expenses.
Let’s explore that a little deeper. The team is likely looking at totaling roughly $5.5 Mil for their draft signings if my comp pick estimate is correct, though after displacement, just shy of $3.5 Mil of that should count against the cap. Add to that approximately $500,000 for bonuses, $2-$2.25 Mil for injury signings, and an uncertain amount for free agents signings. Though, it should be noted that some of the upcoming FA signings shouldn’t move the salary cap needle all too much due to cap displacement. As a refresher, here is the list of the players who will soon hit the free agent market-
[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 (ERFA)
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]
Some of them will get offers, but many of them won’t. Some of them can be re-signed relatively cheaply, but others will command a much higher premium if the team hopes to retain them (see Jason Worilds). It should be noted that the newest projections have the cap breaking $140 Mil, and $150 Mil for 2015 and 2016 respectively. That will factor in to the team’s moves, as it allows for some breathing room for money to be pushed into the future.
So, what can the team do to clear more cap space now? Well, the team has a lot of options. Extending Ben Roethlisberger is a big one. The Steelers will want to work on an extension with Ben to get their franchise quarterback on the books for the long term, but also to lower his 2014 salary cap hit. A reasonable extension with Ben can easily lower his 2014 cap hit $4-$5 Mil. I’m talking a reasonable extension too, not a hometown discount.
Other candidates for extension are Troy Polamalu and Heath Miller. Here are their cap figures:
[table]
Player, Base Salary, Signing Bonus, Salary Cap Number
“Polamalu, Troy”, “$8,250,000”, “$2,637,500”, “$10,887,500”
“Miller, Heath”, “$6,020,000”, “$3,446,500”, “$9,466,500”
[/table]
Releasing Troy would create $2,637,500 in dead money, but would free $8.25 Mil in salary cap space.
Releasing Heath would incur a $3,446,500 dead money hit, but would free up just over $6 Mil in cap space. They aren’t going to be released, I’m just telling you what their numbers are. One player who is a legitimate candidate for release is Ike Taylor. Here are what his 2014 numbers look like:
[table]
Player, Base Salary, Signing Bonus, Salary Cap Number
“Taylor, Ike”, “$7,000,000”, “$4,942,404”, “$11,942,404”
[/table]
As you can see, Ike’s cap number is very high, especially relative to his level of play last season. I imagine the team is going to try to renegotiate Ike’s contract- ie. take a pay cut. If he doesn’t, then they may release him. Releasing Ike would create a dead money charge of $4,942,404 but would free up $7 Mil in space.
Larry Foote is another player who is a candidate for release. Doing so would create $666,667 in dead money, but would clear $1.16 Mil in cap space.
Whatever decisions the Steelers do make to get their salary cap where they need it to be, you can plan on them moving ahead with them in the near future.
