The NFL made yesterday’s rumors official by releasing a memo to all teams today notifying them that the 2014 salary cap is $133 million. This comes in slightly over the $132.3 that was projected yesterday. Last night, I wrote about what the Steelers would need to do to get under the cap if it were $133 Mil. Release Levi Brown. The end.

OK, so things aren’t quite that simple. Releasing Brown does bring the Steelers below the $133 Mil cap limit, but of course, they need to do a lot more than just get in cap compliance. Now that we know the number the team will be working with, we know the team will need to clear roughly $5.67 Mil (by my calculations). This includes dead money already on the books for 2014 and the surplus rollover the team did not use last season. Most of that dead money, which totals $4.55 Mil, is from the release of Willie Colon last year.

After releasing Levi Brown,  the team should be down to approximately $580,000 under the salary cap. That’s good, but the team will need to make several other moves to clear the space it will need for the draft pool, free agent signings, injury signings, various roster bonuses, and other miscellaneous operating expenses.

Let’s explore that a little deeper. The team is likely looking at totaling roughly $5.5 Mil for their draft signings if my comp pick estimate is correct, though after displacement, just shy of $3.5 Mil of that should count against the cap. Add to that approximately $500,000 for bonuses, $2-$2.25 Mil for injury signings, and an uncertain amount for free agents signings. Though, it should be noted that some of the upcoming FA signings shouldn’t move the salary cap needle all too much due to cap displacement. As a refresher, here is the list of the players who will soon hit the free agent market-

[table sort=”desc,asc” width=”300″ colwidth=”20|280″ colalign=”left|center”]

Pos, Player

LB, Jason Worilds

S, Ryan Clark

DE,   Brett Keisel

WR, Emmanuel Sanders

DE,    Ziggy Hood

WR,   Jerricho Cotchery

OL ,   Fernando Velasco

S,   Will Allen

RB,   Jonathan Dwyer

LS,  Greg Warren

WR,  Plaxico Burress

TE,  David Johnson

RB,  Felix Jones

P,   Matt McBriar

OL,   Eric Olsen (ERFA)

TE,   Michael Palmer

RB,  LaRod Stephens-Howling

LB,   Stevenson Sylvester

OL,   Cody Wallace

DE,    Jamaal Westerman

OL,    Guy Whimper

LB,    Kion Wilson

DT,  Al Woods [/table]

Some of them will get offers, but many of them won’t. Some of them can be re-signed relatively cheaply, but others will command a much higher premium if the team hopes to retain them (see Jason Worilds). It should be noted that the newest projections have the cap breaking $140 Mil, and $150 Mil for 2015 and 2016 respectively. That will factor in to the team’s moves, as it allows for some breathing room for money to be pushed into the future.

So, what can the team do to clear more cap space now? Well, the team has a lot of options. Extending Ben Roethlisberger is a big one. The Steelers will want to work on an extension with Ben to get their franchise quarterback on the books for the long term, but also to lower his 2014 salary cap hit. A reasonable extension with Ben can easily lower his 2014 cap hit $4-$5 Mil. I’m talking a reasonable extension too, not a hometown discount.

Other candidates for extension are Troy Polamalu and Heath Miller. Here are their cap figures:

[table]

Player, Base Salary, Signing Bonus, Salary Cap Number

“Polamalu, Troy”, “$8,250,000”, “$2,637,500”, “$10,887,500”

“Miller, Heath”, “$6,020,000”, “$3,446,500”, “$9,466,500”

[/table]

Releasing Troy would create $2,637,500 in dead money, but would free $8.25 Mil in salary cap space.

Releasing Heath would incur a $3,446,500 dead money hit, but would free up just over $6 Mil in cap space.  They aren’t going to be released, I’m just telling you what their numbers are. One player who is a legitimate candidate for release is Ike Taylor. Here are what his 2014 numbers look like:

[table]

Player, Base Salary, Signing Bonus, Salary Cap Number
“Taylor, Ike”, “$7,000,000”, “$4,942,404”, “$11,942,404”
[/table]

As you can see, Ike’s cap number is very high, especially relative to his level of play last season. I imagine the team is going to try to renegotiate Ike’s contract- ie. take a pay cut. If he doesn’t, then they may release him. Releasing Ike would create a dead money charge of $4,942,404 but would free up $7 Mil in space.

Larry Foote is another player who is a candidate for release. Doing so would create $666,667 in dead money, but would clear $1.16 Mil in cap space.

Whatever decisions the Steelers do make to get their salary cap where they need it to be, you can plan on them moving ahead with them in the near future.

Various reports are circulating that indicate the NFL and NFLPA are expected to finalize the 2014 salary cap tomorrow. According to Jason La Canfora, the salary cap figure is projected to be $132.3 Mil. The final cap number should be announced by Monday according to reports.

NFL and NFLPA expect to finalize the new salary cap on Friday. Sources tell me it projects to $132.3M as it stands now

— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) February 28, 2014

This projection falls in line with John Clayton’s report from last week. If this is indeed true, this will be roughly an eight percent increase from last year’s salary cap. It’s looking like only two teams will be over the cap, the Steelers and the Cowboys. Let’s round up to $133 Mil for discussion’s sake. Accounting for the rule of 51 (only the top 51 contracts will count towards the salary cap), the dead money that’s on the books for 2014, and rollover from last year’s cap that went unspent, the team will be close to $5.7 Mil over the cap.

As I’ve said before, cutting Levi Brown costs the team nothing, and clears $6.25 Mil in cap space. Poof, just like that their cap nightmare is over. (That was mild sarcasm)

Now, before we get too carried away, the team will still need to make some moves to clear cap space for the draft pool, free agency, roster bonuses, injury signings, etc. The rookie pool should be just under $5.5 Mil, but count just under $3.5 Mil after displacement.

We’ll know the final number the team will be working with very soon, and the news of cuts, restructures, and extensions should follow slowly as we approach spring.

Recently I reported that the 2014 NFL salary cap was surprisingly projected to reach upwards of $132 Mil. At the end of that article I jokingly suggested that, “At this rate, by the time the owners meet next month, maybe the Steelers won’t need to do any trimming to get below cap compliance.” Well, maybe that wasn’t so unrealistic after all.

According to Mike Florio of Profootballtalk, a source with knowledge of the situation reports that the salary cap could likely be a few million higher than that $132 Mil projection. That would be an increase of roughly 9.75% from last year. One of the biggest story lines this off-season was the Steelers insurmountable ‘cap hell’, and if this report is indeed true, the team will need to do very little to get under cap by March 11th.

It is unclear if the NFLPA is using their $2 Mil cap option to increase the cap at this time. Florio’s source also projects that similar increases will happen in years to come.