The Pittsburgh Steelers are in fairly good shape from a salary cap standpoint as they enter the offseason and after several restructures are taken care next month, the team might have enough room to go after a free agent or two. However, if you think the team will go after a high-profile free agent cornerback, you’re likely to be disappointed.
For starters, as usual, there are only a few high-profile cornerbacks set to hit free agency this upcoming offseason that the Steelers would show any interest in. I have included that list below and it is headed by Josh Norman, who more than likely will be franchise tagged by the Carolina Panthers prior to the start of the new league year.
When it comes to Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Sean Smith, if he isn’t franchised in the coming weeks, he would figure to be the prize free agent at the position this year and thus will have plenty of teams bidding for his services. In other words, you can probably count the Steelers out when it comes to them chasing him.
As for the rest of the list, you can bet that several of them will be sought after. In the bottom table, I have recapped the contracts given to the prime free agent cornerbacks last offseason. Make note of the yearly average value of all of those contracts in addition to the percentage of guaranteed money it took to sign each. The top 10 on that list all averaged more than $5 million a season and only two of them, Antonio Cromartie and Perrish Cox, received less than 40.8% in guarantees.
Top 2016 Free Agent Cornerbacks
| TEAM | PLAYER | AGE |
|---|---|---|
| CAR | Josh Norman | 28 |
| KC | Sean Smith | 28 |
| GB | Casey Hayward | 26 |
| SL | Trumaine Johnson | 26 |
| SD | Patrick Robinson | 28 |
| NYG | Prince Amukamara | 26 |
| BLT | Shareece Wright | 28 |
| NO | Kyle Wilson | 28 |
| SEA | Jeremy Lane | 25 |
| PHI | Nolan Carroll | 29 |
| TB | Sterling Moore | 26 |
| DAL | Morris Claiborne | 25 |
| ARI | Jerraud Powers | 28 |
2015 Top Free Agent Cornerback Signings
| PLAYER | AGE | 2014 | 2015 | YEARS | TOTAL | AVG/YR | TOTAL GUAR | % GUAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Darrelle Revis | 30 | NE | NYJ | 5 | $70,121,060 | $14,024,212 | $39,000,000 | 55.60% |
| Brandon Flowers | 29 | SD | SD | 4 | $36,400,000 | $9,100,000 | $18,000,000 | 49.50% |
| Kareem Jackson | 27 | HST | HST | 4 | $34,000,000 | $8,500,000 | $20,000,000 | 58.80% |
| Chris Culliver | 27 | SF | WAS | 4 | $32,000,000 | $8,000,000 | $16,000,000 | 50.00% |
| Antonio Cromartie | 31 | ARZ | NYJ | 4 | $32,000,000 | $8,000,000 | $7,000,000 | 21.90% |
| Tramon Williams | 32 | GB | CLV | 3 | $21,000,000 | $7,000,000 | $10,000,000 | 47.60% |
| Buster Skrine | 26 | CLV | NYJ | 4 | $25,000,000 | $6,250,000 | $13,000,000 | 52.00% |
| Davon House | 26 | GB | JAX | 4 | $24,500,000 | $6,125,000 | $10,000,000 | 40.80% |
| Perrish Cox | 28 | SF | TEN | 3 | $15,000,000 | $5,000,000 | $2,500,000 | 16.70% |
| Brandon Browner | 31 | NE | NO | 3 | $15,000,000 | $5,000,000 | $7,750,000 | 51.70% |
| Brice McCain | 28 | PIT | MIA | 2 | $5,500,000 | $2,750,000 | $2,000,000 | 36.40% |
| Darius Butler | 29 | IND | IND | 2 | $5,000,000 | $2,500,000 | $2,000,000 | 40.00% |
| Kyle Arrington | 29 | NE | BLT | 3 | $7,000,000 | $2,333,333 | $2,800,000 | 40.00% |
| Terence Newman | 36 | CIN | MIN | 1 | $2,250,000 | $2,250,000 | $750,000 | 33.30% |
| Patrick Robinson | 27 | NO | SD | 1 | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $1,250,000 | 62.50% |
