Cutting these 5 players can save the Steelers 50 million

I feel he isn’t in much of strong bargaining position.

He wants to play next year, he wants to play for Mike Tomlin, he isn’t going to want to go anywhere else … plus his brother is on the team.

What is he going to do, say no thanks and go play for Arizona? Doubtful.

 

The simple thing to do is to extend him using a couple of void years. Transfer a chunk of his $16M base to signing bonus to reduce his cap hit in 2024 while he still gets paid the same amount.

The example I've been using has been to add two void years past 2024, converting $12M of his $16M base to signing bonus. This would decrease his cap hit next year by $8M. If he retires after the season the Steelers can either take on $8M in dead money in 2025, or declare his retirement post June 1 and have $4M each in 2025/26.

 

DeJean is definitely intriguing, shades of Brian Branch last year. I'd love to see what somebody like Capers would have done with him, not sure Austin has the kind of ingenuity to make full use of talents.

 

Cutting DJ makes no sense when you can trade him and at least get some draft capital in return. With WR being as thin as it is, cutting or trading him makes no sense, unless you're bringing in a Tyler Boyd or someone else.

 

He'll take what they end up giving him, which will probably be too much