Maurkice Pouncey, brother Mike to officially retire

If it isn't about money, and the reason he wants to run it back one more time is one last shot at a Super Bowl...He can't actually believe that!

OL is shambles, now his best friend and Center is gone, need a LT, no RB's whatsoever, JuJu probably gone, No Vance, Bud,? Haden?Sutton, Hilton? And being in cap Hell...

Realistically...How high can this team go next year?

 

When I was a kid a sportswriter in WNY wrote and article titled : “Self delusion is the essence of being a fan”. Plenty of evidence for that if you follow this board. But I think it’s just as true, if not truer, that self-delusion is the essence of being a pro athlete. I think if you injected Ben with truth serum, he’d honestly tell you, that this team has a shot. Sure, all the tumblers have to fall in place. But there’s a chance. If I retire, there’s no chance. Just like there’s a greater than zero chance that the winning Powerball ticket blows into the open window of your car when you’re driving down the street.

 

Restructure Heyward, Tuitt, Boz and D Watt saves up to $12m

Extend and restructure Haden, Nelson, Decastro, Ebron & Vince saves up to $22m

Extending Ben could save another $14m, if he retires it’s $19m

Do a backloaded extension with TJ could save another $5m on 2021

That’s $53m in savings without losing anybody so you have $30m + to spend in free agency after you sign the rookies. If the league does a deal to hold the cap where it is (as many think they might) you suddenly have $50m to spend.

The above example is if they do max extension / restructures with everyone and borrow nearly every possible penny from the future. It may not be advisable but they can do it if they want. You can always clear cap space. Some guys like Vince and Derek Watt may be cut, they may not want to extend guys like Ebron or Decastro etc but I’m assuming they want to hold on to everybody

As things stand right now they have the most cap room in the entire NFL in 2022, $170m per Overthecap so borrowing from future years is not a huge issue if they choose to do it. Ben will be gone then, and they will presumably have a much cheaper rookie QB for a few years.

 

I guess telling the steelers to give him a wheelchair instead of a pen rubbed me the wrong way. that doesn't sound like respect. But I guess we'll just disagree

 

Playoffs?

 

i dont think they can do an extension on watt. they have to sign him to a new contract or pay him this 5th year option. i would cut vince and save 4 mil. i wouldn't extend decastro. ebron either. ben getting an extension will just move 14 mil. to next year as well. then we have to wait a year to adjust the offense again. tuitt and heyward were just restructured last year. that's moving a lot of money forward, which could become a problem down the road as they age. hadens age becomes a problem. nelson and boz i'd let play out or cut nelson and save over 8 mil.

cut ben= 19. cut vince= 4. cut nelson= 8.25. 31 mil. - 17= 14 mil to the good this year. cut samuels which is close to another 1 mil.. = 15. move pierre up for nelson. sign sutton. draft well. next year we play in the FA market.

 

They can extend watt which a whopping signing bonus and minimal salary for 2021, keeping the cap charge very low. Once he gets his guarantees I am sure he will happily work with the team. There is no reason that I know of why they can’t do that, according to OTC they can get the charge down to just $3m but that’s probably not realistic.

I’d agree with a lot of what you are saying, there are certain players they won’t want to extend, and I’m not for a second saying they should do everything I outlined. I’m just making the point that they have loads of options to make room. Every year the cap doom around the Steelers is the same and every year they pull of several moves to solve the problem. I don’t expect this year to be any different, albeit it’s a bit trickier with the cap potentially going down.

Ben is the big question, I think he will probably retire now that Pouncey and Vance are gone. If that happens I’d go after Fitzmagic or Brissett as a stop gap

 

Cut Ben
Pouncey retired
McDonald retired
Extend Haden
Extend Nelson
Sign TJ to a long term contract
Restructure a couple guys

Problem solved

 

That’s pretty much what I outlined, that would get them back under the cap. I’d also do a few restructures to free up money for free agency anc to try to get Sutton and Hilton back. There could be some good value role players available on reasonable deals this year.

Get some impact guys in the draft as well and things won’t look anywhere near as bleak as they do right now.

 

depends on watt. if he signs the option for the 10+ mil. we are locked in. ben is the biggie. if he stays we do the extension if he goes we save the money and eat the dead money. those two will determine much of what we do.

 

I wouldn’t get hung up on Watt, they don’t need to do anything there except sign him to a mega deal that kicks in after 2021 and let him play out the year on the fifth year option. There are plenty of savings elsewhere.

Ben is definitely the biggest question and everything they do will be determined by what happens there. If Ben retires they will have to get a veteran in to compete with Mason, so after roster displacement the savings won’t quite be $19m but they will be substantial. Still need to make other moves to bring back some of their own guys and pick up a few guys to round out the roster.

If they can keep the defence together and find some consistency on offence there is no reason the team has to fall off a cliff. Hopefully Canada is what they hope he is and they find some guys again in the draft

 

The cap situation is not as dire as some think. I’m ok with pushing the problem down the road a bit since the cap should start going back up over the next couple years. Plus it wouldn’t surprise me if FA salaries are down slightly this offseason due to the cap.

 

I thought a player could sign the option and still negotiate a new contract up to a certain point?

 

No, No and NO! Tuitt possibly. Extend Ebron?

I can see restructuring Haden and Nelson unless they can come to an agreement with Sutton. Layne is a joke.

This team is not going to go to the promised land. I don't hang on to frayed dental floss. 2020 was the shot.

Give Ben his walking papers. He doesn't want to go out with a 4 pick outing? You think its going to get better? Is he going to buy in to Canada's system?

They need major O Line retooling. And now a center! Banner will need to be signed coming off an injury.

And they have to sign TJ Watt.

They are still in cap hell after Pouncey's retirement.

https://steelersnow.com/steelers-re...alary-cap-after-maurkice-pounceys-retirement/

They need a couple of down years to get into position to draft a QB in the 1st where they are not going to give up draft picks to do so.

Rebuild, retool. Whatever you want to call it. I'm ready to turn the page and let the cards fall where they may...

 

Restructures are great for the team and the player up front, but the put them both in a tough position latter in the contract.

 

How did a thread about Pouncey retiring jump the shark into let's sign JJ Watt?

BTW, JJ Watt says he wants to play for a championship. Maybe some folks on this MB are too delusional to believe that Pittsburgh is that close to winning a championship. Maybe he doesn't want to play for another sh!tty head coach. Maybe he sees a team that has missed the postseason completely in 2 of the past 4 years and gotten embarrassed in the only 2 playoff games they've played in the past 4 years as not being a contender. Maybe the black and yellow colored glasses are filtering out too much reality for some of you. Maybe playing for the steelers and Mike Tomlin isn't as attractive as playing for an innovative and open-minded coaching staff. Maybe the Watts want to reunite somewhere else to win a championship.

 

Yes I think they can as well but @mac daddyo said that it locks in at the option number at some point. Im not 100% on it to be honest

 

Again, I was only laying out the options. A lot of fans and even people who are paid to write about this stuff don’t seem to realise that the team has a lot of options to free up cap room.

 

with haskins, which i think MT is counting on as the vet competition for mason and a draft pick should be plenty in the QB room. IF they are counting on Canada to rework our offense. (mason has a lot of starting time and haskins has some). it's a starting point.

 

i agree i wouldn't extend ebron. tuitt possibly.

i could see haden and nelson extended. i think pierre is in the plans as well. layne they will continue to work with. i don't think he's as bad as we think. sutton would be a nice signing. draft one as well.

i don't think its a total blow up. get rid of ben and roll with mason, haskins and a draft pick. let canada's offense begin fresh.

i don't think it's a total retool on the line. okrafor will move to the left. banner should be able to be signed. we have two young but pretty athletic tackles in coyle and walton that were quite good in college. they have time here so we build on that. dotson and decastro are fine for this year. leglue is a backup with a few years in the pro systems. collins also has time in pro systems. draft a center. olson from Minn. has double digit starts at all 3 interior positions in college. hawkins could be a good resigning for cheap as well. ideal? maybe not but they all have pro system experience and that means something. let these two new coaches work.

if ben goes we can manage the cap hell much better. ben would save 19 mil. off that cap number. down to 5 over will be much easier to work with. cut vince knocks that to 1 mil over. extensions of haden and nelson and tuitt gets you in the black. samuels gets us near another 1. we may not be totally out of at least playoff contention. it won't be easy but the defense can help keep us in. a couple of good draft picks to mesh in on that side of the ball could keep it viable.

 

I'm not talking about the rest of the league. I'm not an NFL fan. I'm a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I believe that we have had the talent for years to fill both hands with rings. I believe we've squandered those opportunities. I wholeheartedly accept that injury and misfortune play into a championship and sometimes the most talented team does not win. More often than not, imho, it's the best coached team that wins. Yes, you'll point out the "Brady factor." And I can't argue that there are times that transcendent players can outplay coaching and be more instrumental to a team's success. But that is far far from the norm.

But getting back to your rebuttal, I didn't say that we didn't have a successful season because we didn't win a championship, now did I? I said "... go 11-0 and then choke down the stretch and get bounced in the wild-card round..." How many teams did that? Oh, just 1? So please don't spin what I said to try to make your point, okay? Even if I were referring to the entire league, no team started like we did and choked like we did down the stretch. So are you saying that we had a successful season? I just want 2 be sure. So I can remember you said that.

 

Some salaries will down as we have already seen some teams begin to cut players..and as always the market will settle after an initial surge and some good stop gap deals should be available. Read an article a few weeks back where Agents have stated they will not allow their FA clients (assuming they are talking super A list) to sign financial depleted contracts There is still enough money in some teams banks to push the market level up for certain players.

 

Okay, fine. That was disrespectful. I'm just frustrated with squandering opportunities. I don't feel that Ben can help this team at this stage. Like I said, I appreciate him and the years of excitement and memories he brought to this team. But at some point, the very best pull horse you ever had can't pull anymore. You put him out to pasture and don't waste resources on him.

Sorry my insensitive comment rubbed you the wrong way. Wasn't meant to do that. It was just frustration boiling over to my typing fingers.

 

I really like Vince though, guy has hustle you see him all over the field, Ebron has to go though. For me, if you're an outlet option, you have to have great hands. Otherwise why not just have the QB throw 50/50 balls to WRs downfield?