Fans must be in a cutting mood as I have received several request to post how much each Pittsburgh Steelers player currently under contract would save against the 2013 salary cap if released prior to June 1st.
You can see the current cap situation by following the link above and below I have listed every player currently under contract along with their 2013 cap charge, their cap savings if cut, and the final year of their current contract. The numbers that are in red mean that specific player would actually cost more money than their currently scheduled cap number to releases.
As you can see, the players that offer the real savings ends with Jerricho Cotchery. As I have pointed out in a previous post, the only real fathomable candidates to become salary cap causalities are James Harrison, Brett Keisel, Willie Colon and Cotchery.
Restructure candidates, as I pointed out after the season ended, are Ben Roethlisberger, Lawrence Timmons, LaMarr Woodley and Antonio Brown. There is roughly $20 million saved by doing those four, and I fully expect those to take place over the course of the next several weeks. They have to.
So what about the possibility of designating a player a post June 1st cut and releasing him early in order to stretch out the dead money over two years? For starters, each team can only designate up to two players for this kind of release. On top of that, the team still must carry the original cap hit that player was scheduled to count against the 2013 salary cap until June 2nd. See the problem?
For example, if the Steelers wanted to tab Harrison a post June 1st cut and release him early, they still would have to carry his entire $10.035 million cap charge on the books until June 2nd. As you can clearly see, that is not a feasible option. The only option the Steelers have with Harrison is to either cut him prior to March 12, or get him to agree to a base salary cut of at least $3 million or more. Restructuring his contract is simply not an advisable option due to his age.
So who would qualify as a candidate to be a post June 1st cut? Really there is only one at would be Colon. Releasing on a regular schedule only saves $1.2 million, but releasing early with a post June 1st designation means that he would ultimately clear $5.5 million in cap space come June 2nd. Releasing him that way, however, would create a dead money charge in 2014 of $4.3 million.
Happy cutting.
2013 Salary Cap Saving By Player
| PLAYER | SAVINGS | CAP CHARGE | FINAL YEAR |
| Harrison, James | $5,105,000.00 | $10,035,000.00 | 2014 |
| Polamalu, Troy | $4,862,500.00 | $10,137,500.00 | 2014 |
| Roethlisberger, Ben | $4,100,000.00 | $19,595,000.00 | 2015 |
| Miller, Heath | $3,812,000.00 | $7,958,500.00 | 2014 |
| Clark, Ryan | $3,500,000.00 | $4,750,000.00 | 2013 |
| Keisel, Brett | $2,825,000.00 | $4,500,000.00 | 2013 |
| Taylor, Ike | $2,545,832.00 | $9,454,166.00 | 2014 |
| Hood, Ziggy | $1,992,325.00 | $2,990,860.00 | 2013 |
| Colon, Willie | $1,200,000.00 | $7,650,000.00 | 2015 |
| Suisham, Shaun | $1,087,500.00 | $1,762,500.00 | 2014 |
| Cotchery, Jerricho | $1,000,000.00 | $1,500,000.00 | 2013 |
| King, Justin | $715,000.00 | $715,000.00 | 2013 |
| Woods, Al | $630,000.00 | $630,000.00 | 2013 |
| Cromartie-Smith, Damon | $555,000.00 | $555,000.00 | 2013 |
| Rolle, Brian | $555,000.00 | $555,000.00 | 2013 |
| Wilson, Kion | $555,000.00 | $555,000.00 | 2013 |
| Carter, Chris | $514,300.00 | $595,700.00 | 2014 |
| Gilreath, David | $480,000.00 | $480,000.00 | 2013 |
| Johnson, Will | $480,000.00 | $480,000.00 | 2014 |
| Malecki, John | $480,000.00 | $480,000.00 | 2013 |
| McCoy, Jamie | $480,000.00 | $480,000.00 | 2013 |
| McFadden, Marshall | $480,000.00 | $480,000.00 | 2013 |
| Pianalto, Zack | $480,000.00 | $480,000.00 | 2013 |
| Ta\’amu, Alameda | $480,000.00 | $480,000.00 | 2013 |
| Ventrone, Ross | $480,000.00 | $480,000.00 | 2013 |
| Victorian, Josh | $480,000.00 | $480,000.00 | 2013 |
| Butler, Drew | $478,332.00 | $481,666.00 | 2014 |
| Golden, Robert | $478,332.00 | $481,666.00 | 2014 |
| Robinson, Adrian | $478,332.00 | $481,666.00 | 2014 |
| Allen, Cortez | $457,125.00 | $652,875.00 | 2014 |
| Beachum, Kelvin | $457,052.00 | $491,474.00 | 2015 |
| Paulson, David | $457,052.00 | $491,474.00 | 2015 |
| Gilbert, Marcus | $456,600.00 | $880,204.00 | 2014 |
| Brown, Curtis | $424,700.00 | $685,300.00 | 2014 |
| Cheadle, Justin | $405,000.00 | $405,000.00 | 2014 |
| Fangupo, Hebron | $405,000.00 | $405,000.00 | 2015 |
| Green, Isaiah | $405,000.00 | $405,000.00 | 2014 |
| Hrapmann, Danny | $405,000.00 | $405,000.00 | 2013 |
| Moore, Kashif | $405,000.00 | $405,000.00 | 2014 |
| Moye, Derek | $405,000.00 | $405,000.00 | 2014 |
| Reed, Bert | $405,000.00 | $405,000.00 | 2014 |
| Spence, Sean | $227,310.00 | $636,345.00 | 2015 |
| Worilds, Jason | $165,000.00 | $985,000.00 | 2013 |
| Adams, Mike | $42,475.00 | $805,375.00 | 2015 |
| Timmons, Lawrence | $20,000.00 | $11,160,000.00 | 2016 |
| Pouncey, Maurkice | ($273,375.00) | $2,527,875.00 | 2014 |
| Brown, Antonio | ($600,000.00) | $6,200,000.00 | 2017 |
| Heyward, Cameron | ($844,096.00) | $1,828,644.00 | 2014 |
| Woodley, LaMarr | ($1,120,000.00) | $13,240,000.00 | 2016 |
| DeCastro, David | ($3,161,772.00) | $1,775,886.00 | 2015 |
