The Steelers and tight end Darnell Washington have reached agreement on a four-year, $42M extension

Boy that Watt contract is just like a boat anchor. Real constraint on roster moves.

 

Very interesting. McCarthy has never been a 2 TE guy. And they seem committed to Muth.

I think we're going to see some innovation here this year.

 

Figure we should start hearing the Friermuth trade rumors this time tomorrow.

 

Yeah in fact they just restructured Muth's deal, right? So like he's probably definitely staying this year.

 

I really like this deal.

I personally think that we should continue to use Washington more than PF this year. He's just too versatile. And I think we should give him at least one jump ball every single time we're in the red zone.

But signing him for less APY than PF had 2 years ago suggests that PF will be the TE1?

Outside the top 10 APY, which is kind of hard to do for a guy you want to keep as a starter (or at least split snaps).

Really like this...although I'm also a big Washington fan.

I think Washington could grow to be a great cap value if he keeps TE1 duties. He should be basically uncoverable in the end zone.

 

Or that his locker looks sparse and he is absent with an illness most likely from eating mystery meat in his popular podcast grilling with Muth.

 

They settled for cheap options at a few positions last year. Hell, they pulled their free safety off the scrap heap. That failed so miserably that they didn't just bench the guy; they cut him during the season.

Yes, it is limiting them.

 

Good call Hackjam.

Per OTC it's $12.6mm dead if we traded him pre Jun 1 ($5.7mm cap loss). But only $4.2mm after (2.7mm cap savings)?

So certainly not trading pre Jun 1.

I still don't really get how cap hits get amortized for trades post-Jun1.

The pre Jun1 number makes sense. basically accelerates all the remaining pro-rated cap hit from bonuses / restructures into the current year.

I'm guessing that post Jun1, you keep the pro-rated cap hit from the current year, but the future pro-ration doesn't hit until the following year? If that's true, we'd only get $4.2mm dead this year, but the remaining $8.4mm dead would come next year? I think...

My guess is that MM will design the O more for PF than Washington...especially between the 20s. But maybe we keep running 12? At least more than what he usually does (which isn't much IIRC)?

 

That's what I recall. Something like 1/3 of dead money in year 1 and 2/3 of dead money in year 2. Still, Art Rooney II isn't exactly known for lighting money on fire.

 

It's not really limiting them because we aren't paying a QB or any OTs.

But it is a bad contract.

Hopefully he can rebound to at least 2024 levels...

 

How much is it the contract limiting them vs the obvious blind spot the previous staff had? Im sure that Tomlin was ready to roll with backup's backups because the level of play from the front 7 would more than make up for bargain bin safeties.

 

Khan isn't messing around with these extensions.

 

This.

IMO, the only way we trade PF is if someone dramatically overpays. And they won't.

It will be interesting to see if he can deliver big games against a team other than the Bengals under a different offensive regime. It's been frustrating how we've essentially forgotten that we had a decent receiving TE for most of PF's career.

 

Yep...early signings like this tend to be good for the team as the prices only go up as we get closer to the season.

 

With the new coaching staff it doesn't sound like Benton will spending the majority of his snaps at NT.

 

Good signing, I like it.

 

I hope so, too, but I think it would be foolish to count on that.

 

But but the Steelers don't develop their players .

 

No. It is not.

The team is spending money at a ferocious clip.

Bad player evaluation or positional priority is not a cap issue.

 

No, they really aren't. They made solid moves, not big splashes.

If you want to argue that Watt will bounce back, that's fine. It doesn't seem likely, but it's not an unreasonable argument.

Claiming they don't lose anything by spending $40 million a year for an edge rusher who is merely good is one of the dumber arguments i've seen on this site.

 

About time we get some fresh ideas/plays around here.

 

That’s a lot for a “specialty” player but when you consider he’s an O line man that can catch, awwwwright. So, Khans caught on to the sign the ones you luv early before their value is not only out of reach of YOUR budget BUT the leagueS too. Liking that!

 

And in your constant efforts to make se semblance of a point you've yet to identify the moves that were prevented.

Just so we can all play as long at home...the one site I looked at has it that the Steelers have spent a bit more on Rodgers than the Seahawks have on Darnold to date.

Because that's usually the move.

I'm not saying the Watt contract is a good deal. I'm just saying it hasn't prevented things from happening.

Steelers have made bad roster decisions all on their own. Not driven by math.