As expected, the Steelers have restructured Antonio Brown’s contract, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports. According to Schefter, the restructuring clears $4 Mil in 2014 cap space. While it’s close to that, the maximum cap savings available by restructuring AB is $3,952,500.
While there are no official numbers yet, I can break down what the move likely looks like. Here’s a before and after:
[table]
Player, Year, Base Salary, Signing Bonus, Salary Cap Number
“Brown, Antonio”, 2014, “$6,000,000”, “$2,470,000”, “$8,470,000”
[/table]
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[table]
Player, Year, Base Salary, Signing Bonus, Salary Cap Number
“Brown, Antonio”, 2014, “$730,000”, “$3,787,500”, “$4,517,500”
[/table]
This move should put the Steelers in the neighborhood of $3.5 Mil under the $133 Mil salary cap. Expect more moves in the future. Lawrence Timmons is a prime restructure candidate, though, I don’t expect he’ll be max restructured like Antonio Brown was. Releasing or renegotiating with Ike Taylor will clear significant cap room. Signing Jason Worilds to a long term deal will clear additional room, as well. Extending Ben Roethlisberger could easily clear 4-5 Mil in cap space, though that is not an immediate need for the team.