The following players did not participate in practice today: CB Cortez Allen, CB Curtis Brown, and RB Le’Veon Bell.
Steve McLendon, Heath Miller, and Shaun Suisham were limited.
Allen is still recovering from an ankle sprain he suffered during the Titans game. Curtis Brown missed practice due to illness.
McLendon is said to have a hamstring injury.
Update- See all of the Steelers contracts and Steelers salary cap related news here: Steelers Salary Cap
The team restructured Heath Miller’s contract yesterday to free up cap space for recent signings. Going into Tuesday, the Steelers only had approximately $1.5 million in available cap space, so the team really had little choice but to restructure after getting hit by the injury tsunami on Sunday. None of the three players who required surgery this week had split contracts that would provide cap relief to the team in case of injury.
$3,187,500 of Heath’s $5,162,000 2013 base salary was converted into a prorated signing bonus. The move freed up just under $1.6 Mil of cap room this year. Heath’s salary cap numbers for 2013 and 2014 are as follows:
[table id=16 /]
Here are the financials for the signings the team made this week:
Base Salary Cap Number
Jonathan Dwyer~ $630,000 $592,941
Fernando Velasco~ $715,000 $522,353
Shayne Graham~ $940,000 $522,353
The three signings combined cost the team $1,637,647, so before restructuring Heath Miller’s contract, the signings were not possible. As of right now, the team has $1,385,253 in salary cap space, and that includes restructuring Heath.
According to Ed Bouchette, Jonathan Dwyer’s salary is $630,000. As I said the other day, Dwyer’s contract would likely be for the vet minimum. What Ed doesn’t say is whether or not the deal includes a signing bonus. It wouldn’t be terribly surprising if it didn’t, but I did expect the terms to include a small one. Either way, the front office knows how to bargain shop.
Edit- There was indeed no signing bonus money included in his contract.
The Steelers vs Bengals depth chart was released yesterday. While not all surprising, here are some notable entries:
Kelvin Beachum as starting center and Velasco at back up.
Redman listed at starter in front of Jones and Dwyer.
Kion Wilson listed as starter at LILB, with Vince Williams at backup.
Worilds and Jones as co-starters.
You can view the depth chart here:
[gview file=”http://thesteelersfans.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/steelers_depth_chart_9_10_2013.pdf” save=”0″]
David DeCastro was on The Fan morning show today talking about the play that injured Pouncey, the offensive line’s problems on Sunday, the next man up at center, and facing the Bengals. I won’t transcribe everything, but here are a couple quotable excerpts.
When you get back to work tomorrow, how intense do you think it will be based on how week one went?
‘Coaches always stress- don’t do more than you have to. When things go bad, you see people do more than they have to. If everyone just does their job, and is on the same page…we’ll be fine. When people start trying to do too much and overcompensate for things, that’s when people get in trouble. We just have to come out another work week, and be extra ‘on the screws’ as they say, and come out and go to work. That’s all we can do.’
What’s tougher to deal with mentally, getting hurt last year in the preseason or what happened on Sunday…being involved the a play that got Maurkice Pouncey hurt?
‘Oh yeah, it’s always harder when you are involved in the play. It’s easy to get hurt and that’s fine, but when you are on the other side, it’s definitely…I think it’s definitely harder.’
You can listen to the full interview below:
During his press conference today, Coach Tomlin gave some details on the players who’s injuries required surgery.
Larry Foote: Foote had surgery on his ruptured biceps this morning.
LaRod Stephens-Howling: Stephens-Howling is scheduled to have surgery on the torn ACL in his right knee tomorrow.
Maurkice Pouncey: Pouncey will have surgery on his right ACL and MCL Thursday.
All three were placed on Injured Reserve yesterday and will miss the remainder of the season.
The team announced today that they have signed K Shayne Graham. Graham’s name was thrown around last night as a possible temporary solution while Shaun Suisham recovers from his hamstring injury. Suisham injured his hamstring during pregame warm ups before the Titans game and is expected to be sidelined a few weeks.
This signing makes the 14th team the 35 year old kicker has played for, including all of the AFC North teams. He holds multiple Bengals franchise records and made the pro bowl while on their roster in 2005. While kicking for the Texans last season, he made 31-of-38 field goals, and made a career long 55 yarder against the Patriots in the playoffs.
He was cut by the Browns when they reduced their roster to 53 men on August 31st.
The Steelers agreed to terms with former Titans C/G Fernando Velasco today. The deal was for one year, but the financial details were not immediately available. Velasco started 16 games for the Titans last year. 13 of those games at center, and 3 at LG. Many considered Velasco to be the best available center on the open market. If you put a lot of stock into PFF’s grading, they had him graded as the number 11 center last year.
The team has moved quickly to replace the players who were seriously injured yesterday with the signing of Velasco and the re-signing of Jonathan Dwyer. It will be interesting to see what they do about replacing Larry Foote, who tore his bicep yesterday.
Ed Bouchette of the Post-Gazette is reporting that the Steelers will be re-signing Jonathan Dwyer today. This is a logical move after the news that LaRod Stephens-Howling tore his ACL yesterday and will be out for the year. Dwyer has had workouts with the Giants and the Patriots recently, but neither team offered him a contract.
Dwyer was due $1.323 million this season before being waived during the final roster cuts. It will be interesting to see the financial details of his signing. It’s hard not to feel a little bad for Dwyer given the abysmal blocking performance displayed yesterday by the offensive line. That’s almost certainly going to get worse now that Maurkice Pouncey is out.
The Steelers lost. At home. To the Titans. It was ugly. What stings a lot more than the loss is the excessive injury toll the team suffered today. Most notably- Maurkice Pouncey. Pouncey injured his ACL and his MCL only 8 plays into the season opener. David DeCastro was attempting to cut block on Sen’Derrick Marks, but instead Pouncey was the unfortunate recipient. Pouncey is said to need surgery on his knee and is expected to miss the remainder of the season.
Larry Foote and LaRod Stephens-Howlings are also reportedly going to require surgery due to injuries received in today’s game. Foote ruptured his bicep and LSH suffered a torn ACL.
Cortez Allen suffered an ankle injury late in the first half. The details were not available after the game, but it was being evaluated. Shaun Suisham injured his hamstring before the game and could reportedly miss a few weeks. More details should be available in the next couple days so stay tuned. Expect some roster moves tomorrow.