2014 Salary Cap Projected To Increase

good news but we are still over that one too, I believe. we also should have a little carry over money from this year. every little bit helps us. with a few paycuts we may be in respectable shape, but I wouldn't look for any major signings.

 

Really not good news considering it's another sub 3% increase. Franchise QB salaries are sky rocketing. With the slow growth of the cap, they are taking a much larger percentage of the team payroll. If Ben wants to get paid $20M a year, that will be 16% of our cap!!

Also, when guys like Worilds have a breakout year, they're gonna want to get paid at a 100 - 300% increase. Not much room when the cap only goes up 2.68%

 

I remember reading this. It was within the new CBA. It increases , correct me if I'm wrong, every 3 years.

I know the season is over but we have just made a little more ro by default. It's celebration time.

Also I do believe this has been known since the new CbA. At least it was projected.

 

If that number is correct, it puts us at just a little over 9 million OVER the cap, if those numbers are correct. We can get to that number a LOT easier than what most think. Levi Brown will most likely be cut and we will carry over 1.4 million. Those 2 alone account for 7.4 million of that 9 million we are over. No worries for me at all. By the time we give bonuses to guys like Brown, I think we are under that number.

 

DsteelerCT , that's because the franchise qb is much more common then it used to be. actually guys that may have been considered good qb's in the past are becoming "franchise guys" when before they normally wouldn't and teams are paying them like they are.

we also have fallen for the 1-2 good, not great year guys in the past and part of the reason we are in the spot we are in.

there is also the owners like Daniel Snyder that shoot the pays up so high for role players that it hurts the other teams. 100 mil for a NT type moves.

there is no more development and loyalty left in the league or development of a player. (mike adams types) you better be able to play at a high level right now mindset.

then there is the you can't keep them all thing.

 

if you think about it, if we cut Woodley post june 1, with the added 3 mil. raise, he would cost somewhere around colons dead money or less for the next 2 years.

cut levi brown, 6 mil., pouncey 4.1 mil., ike 7 mil, take 2-3 mil. off of t-roy (still leaves him at 5-6 mil.) we could be sitting on 19-20 mil. plus the additional 3 mil. raise and the 1.4 carry over from this year. we could be sitting pretty. add gilbert, foster, foote and maybe suisham and gradkowski and spaeth. we can have some cash on hand this year and upgrade. are any of those guys, can't lose players? that's somewhere in the 32 mil. saved neighborhood.

 

They aren't going to cut Pouncey he's still their best lineman he just had a freak injury. Also you can't cut Foster and Gilbert without having better options to replace them. They need to make cuts elsewhere Ike, Foote, Levi Brown.

 

To the extent that we'd have no team left, yes...

I think, like steelersrule6, Pouncey stays, and it would be silly to get rid of him unless he was demanding outrageous numbers.

 

what do you mean no team left?

foote didn't play this year.

gradkowski didn't play this year.

pouncey didn't play this year.

spaeth barely played last week after sitting all year.

levi brown didn't play this year.

gilbert didn't play very well this year.

foster was just OK again.

ike hasn't played very well this year.

suisham has cost us at least two games this year.

where is all the contribution these guys have brought us, that we will miss? saying pouncey is the best lineman from a line that gives up 40+ sacks a year since he's been here and we still don't run the ball very well. I'm missing all the can't live without these guys magic.

 

No team left was an exaggeration, of course, but the team is more than the starting 11.

I'm not disagreeing with your assessment of the players (other than Pouncey - though would prefer keeping Velasco and moving him to G), and take your point that most are on IR.

There is a question of who you replace them with. We need solid and proven lineman to supplement the new draft picks, because both will likely go down with injury at some point. We need a back-up QB of the calibre of Gradkowski at least because we know Ben is always one hit away from disaster. We need to have a more solid stable of CBs before we make William Gay our no. 1 guy in Ike's absence.

 

if I thought our last year draft picks would stay as rookies the rest of their lives, you would have a point, but our hopes are they get better, that's why we drafted them.

gradkowski has done absolutely nothing in this league to even give him such high praise thig. jones in year two should be able to move up. a 3rd shouldn't be to hard to find. after ben we are in trouble anyway.

velasco needs signed.

we need to draft at least one if not two good TE's this year. we let spaeth go before because he wasn't good enough and has brought absolutely nothing to the team this year.

what do we do after next year with pouncey? we are already saying if we bring velasco back that he's not good enough to start at the position we drafted him for. why just try to find a spot that he would fit in? he's never been known as a great guard.

ike is fading fast as we can see. with money we could find someone. we will have to draft and actually keep a cb, if we don't want gay to start, but we have made this bed of gay and allen and will have to move on from there if we intend to get better. it takes money. without cuts we have more of what we are seeing last year and this year.

 

I think the ironic thing on Velasco is that his injury to some extent helps the Steelers because that means they can probably keep him at a smaller salary where he will either be the Center next year and Pouncey at Guard or as a valuable backup. Without the injury the Steelers may have had a hard time being able to keep him.

Amen to your comments on the TEs. With the way the TE position is utilized in this league you need to have more than just one option. I guess Spaeth was brought back for his blocking which I never thought was that good anyway.

I got a funny feeling you are going to see Ike back next year at a reduced salary. I have mixed feelings about that, but generally I still think Ike has been a pretty solid corner, the crazy thing w/him is he seems to do better when up against the stud receivers like AJ Green but underperforms against the mid line talented receivers.

 

Some bad teams have plenty of money to spend in 2014, the Raiders are 70 million under the cap Of course, the Raiders necessarily will have to spend some of that money, given that only 32 players remain under contract beyond the current season. For G.M. Reggie McKenzie, it’s the closest thing to a clean slate that a non-expansion team can have.
and some Other teams with plenty of cap space next year, assuming full carryover and based on NFLPA records, include the Jaguars ($58 million with 44 contracts), the Browns ($49 million with 52 contracts), the Bears ($47 million with only 26 contracts), the Colts ($39 million with 41 contracts), and the Vikings ($27 million with 41 contracts).

 

Looks like the Browns with 49 million in cap space, and 52 players signed through 2014 with 2 first round draft picks can really upgrade their team through the draft and plenty of money to spend in FA, yeah I'm jealous compared to our cap hell situation....

 

I'm not massively disagreeing with you mac. But I do think that a purge - which to an extent is necessary, whether for cap or for talent reasons - will not mean any more enjoyable a season for us fans next year. This is the stage we're at in our re-development from the old, SB winning team to whatever team takes its place in the future.

Then again, as you say, it's not like we can leave things unchanged. So it's a toughie. How much of our play this year was down to the talent ceiling, and how much down to execution? How much can players like Ike execute better at this stage in their career?

I think we should be keeping Foote for a camp battle with Williams and Wilson; likewise Levi Brown and the other OLmen. But I wouldn't jump the gun on it.

And TEs... yes, definitely. I don't follow college ball much, but we should be going for the best all-around TE that's on the board...

 

oh, there will be tough decisions that's for sure. the thing about playing these youngsters this year is field time. it's not like guys that we draft and they sit the bench and learn all year. those guys seem to take until year 3 for it to really click. physically and mentally, but with the guys that saw a lot of game time, they should have it come together much faster.

as for larry foote, I don't think larry should be a starter anymore. he's very wise to this defense as far as the LB'ers, but the physical part of his game is heading south quickly. he's had to slim down so much for speed, that he's kind of physically undermanned. I would love to see him retire and move into a coaching situation with us. we don't know what's going to happen with lebeau yet and it could effect butler. right now olsavsky is assisting butler with the LB'ers, and I wouldn't mind seeing those two take over that position if butler exits.

as far as pouncey goes, if we sign velasco, which we would probably do for 3 years I would hope, pouncey has one year left and I don't think we can keep them both money wise. I'd hate to pass on velasco and lose pouncey after next year and be back to the situation we were in pre pouncey having lost them both just to keep pouncey one more year.

I don't think there is enough of a difference between the two's game and velasco would be the cheaper option. FV brings more leadership to the line then I have seen with pouncey. that's my personal observation. this line rallied around FV when he got here. he help seal up the rush into bens face this year.

 

I've been an ike fan since before the draft when we got him. this year he really took a step back. last year I saw it a little, but this year was a big jump to me. I really would like to see him go to FS. I said this two years ago. his initial and makeup quickness is fading, and I think that's a lot of the reason he's better on those big receivers as opposed to a teams #1 quicker guys.

I think ike could do well facing the play. I think the interceptions would go up for him. seeing the ball coming instead of him having to turn and locate it more when trying to catch it. he's always been a solid tackler too. we just can't have 15 mil. eaten up between two safeties. we'd probably need 3 mil. from each for them to stay. at least that's my thinking.