2026 Free Agent Thread

steelersrule6 · May 13, 2026

S.T.D · May 17, 2026

HeinzMustard said: ↑

I'd replace Bears with Broncos. I can see both Patriots and Broncos being worse this year than last. Bears have the HC Steelers should have acquired. Ben Johnson is the best coach they've had since Ditka.
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I heard those exact words in 2018 about Matt Nagy, and M. Trubisky, and by 2020 people where making terrible memes about the man. I believe I will wait, and see.

NorthernBlitz · Sep 8, 2026 at 9:37 PM

NorthernBlitz said: ↑

It's your argument that I disagree with. Not your conclusion. Because your argument doesn't support your conclusion.

My argument is that you are basing Metcalf's value of of a one year cap number in a multi year contract. This number in isolation is pretty meaningless because it can change so much based on the whims of the team.

You can't really compare that to the cap hit of a franchise tag because that's a one year deal where all the value of the whole contract hits the cap in one year. Unless Pickens does sign a long term deal.

Because the cap hit from a single year in a long term contract has very little correlation to the value a player brings to a team.

You have to look at the total cap hit over the length of a long term deal. Because it's very easy for teams to adjust the cap hit in a given year. Doing so changes how the total cap hit of a deal gets spread over time.

I won't be surprised at all if we do a restructure on Metcalf and reduce his cap hit. I think he's the player we could get the most cap space from. If we need or want more cap space (as a buffer, to afford a contract more than the tag value on Rodgers, to sign someone who becomes available after cuts, to be in compliance as we get closer to the beginning of the season), he's probably the first guy they go to. Especially if it's an appreciable amount we need. Personally, I hope we don't restructure him because I think that's not a great move for a team that isn't really going to be competitive for a SB because we don't have a QB.
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Just posting this here to illustrate the point that comparing 1 year tags and long term deals is silly.

Now that we restructured Metcalf's deal (which was pretty clearly the plan from early in the offseason), his cap hit this year is $13.2MM.

Pickens is still on the tag, so his cap value remains at $27.3MM. I could be wrong about the rule, but I think the deadline for Pickens to sign a long term extension with the Boys has passed. So he'll play out the tag and see if they tag him again (at a minimum of a 20% bump from this year's tag value I think).

So as predicted, "the tables turned" in the cap value they are charged this year. Because looking at any single year's cap hit in a multi-year deal doesn't tell you all that much. You need to look across the entire deal.

So comparing the single year cap hits of a guy on a one year deal and a guy on a long deal (where the number was clearly going to be manipulated before the beginning of the season) didn't really tell us anything about anything.

It seemed to be someone starting with a conclusion they wanted to make, then working backward to try to find something that looked like evidence they were correct.

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2026 Free Agent Thread

steelersrule6 Well-Known Member

S.T.D Well-Known Member

NorthernBlitz Well-Known Member

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