Have the Steelers been too loyal?

Loyalty is a great thing. But not when you're putting together an NFL roster.
--from the article

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...y-they-must-alter-their-free-agent-philosophy

This is a thought provoking article and suggests that the Steelers have held on to their current group of veterans a year or two too long. We are in a salary cap pickle because of huge investments in which the return has been inadequate. If Harrison, Polamalu, Woodley and Hampton were stocks, they'd be a definite "sell".

 

Well, all hell would have broken loose had we not extended them when it was 'buy' or 'sell' time. This franchise generally has done a great job in this department. It's kind of hard to predict bad backs, concussions, hamstrings, etc . . .

 

I was surprised Casey was back this past year....I thought for sure he would have been cut.

 

You got to look at it this way. The Steelers were in 3 superbowls in a six year span. Fans would have been up in arms if we had not kept the core group around for little while longer after the 2010 Superbowl.

 

I don't think it was loyalty as much as it was trying to hold together a championship roster.

Restructuring contracts can hold a team together in the short term, but it can burn you down the road, which is where we are now. We're in a cap mess because we pushed the cap hits down the road and have to deal with them now.

We went to 3 Superbowls and won 2. That's as close to a dynasty as you're going to see in today's NFL, so honestly I say it was worth it even if we're hurting now from it.




It's also why I'd like to see us cut guys now, rather than restructure them. Letting go of Harrison, Hampton, Clark, Ike, Colon, etc is really going to hurt us in the short term. However, it's going to free up cap space down the road AND it's going to allow us to see what we have in guys like Worilds, Carter, Golden, Beachum, Curtis Brown, etc.

Guys like Worilds in particular need to get on the field to see if they're worth keeping around while we're rebuilding.

I would rather have swings of being at the very top, and then at the bottom, than be a team like say, Dallas/Philly/Indy that are competitive just about every year but never make any noise in January.

 

exactly what i think , every restructured can be clean in one year and then after that season you still have the full cap back just we have to know who we want for the future

 

I think their loyalty is why they are the best organization in sports. they take care of their own. sure sometimes they keep a player to long. look at hines. the last year he was here he done nothing but i think we all agree that hines is and will always be a steeler. imo the kept him to reward him for the years he gave the team. if they hadnt done that he would have played a yr or two in another uniform. the cap situation is what it is. i trust that they know what they are doing. the proof is in the pudding so to speak. we are a model franchise. when you look around the league, you realize just how good we are.