The Pittsburgh Steelers announced today that they have signed free agent tight end Leonard Pope to a one-year contract following his visit to the Southside today. Pope has a long history with new offensive coordinator Todd Haley after playing for him with the Arizona Cardinals and the Kansas City Chiefs. Pope is the first free agent player signed by the Steelers this offseason. My speculation is that the contract is a one-year deal for $700,000 that includes a $65,000 signing bonus. That would make it a veteran qualifying contract and mean that the salary cap hit would be just $605,000. Pope Read more [...]

Former Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback William Gay signed a two-year contract with the Arizona Cardinals a few weekends ago and now the financials of the deal are leaking out. The total of the two-year deal is reportedly $3.2 million and consist of a 2012 base salary of $975,000 and a 2013 base salary of $1.475 million. Gay received a $500,000 signing bonus and the deal also is believed to have included a 2013 roster bonus of $250,000. The second year is of course not guaranteed. This means that the 2012 cap hit for Gay should be $1.225 million and his 2013 cap hit, should he make the roster, would Read more [...]

Matt Barrows of The Sacramento Bee, reports that the San Francisco 49ers looked into Steelers restricted free agent wide receiver Mike Wallace since free agency began and were told that Wallace was looking for a contract that surpasses the eight-year, $120 million one that Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald signed last year. That is a pretty huge demand for sure and if indeed it is true, you can be pretty sure you do not have to worry about him getting any offer sheets as that request is outrageous. While he would return on his one year tender of nearly $2.75 million, there is Read more [...]

Judging by the report by Brian McIntyre, Pittsburgh Steelers nose tackle Casey Hampton has taken a reduction in his 2012 base salary and eliminated his $1 million workout bonus. Hampton, who is headed into the final year of his three year contract, was scheduled to earn a $4.89 million base salary to go along with a $1 million workout bonus. He also had $2,166,668.00 million worth of signing bonus proration left on the books as well and his cap hit in 2012 was scheduled to be $8,056,668.00 million. Hampton has apparently reduced his base salary to $2.8 million and removed his his workout bonus Read more [...]

The Philadelphia Eagles signed franchised wide receiver DeSean Jackson to a 5-year deal on Wednesday, and as expected, the over-reaction was wide spread as to what it might mean to Pittsburgh Steelers restricted free agent Mike Wallace. The contract numbers are already out per Pro Football Talk and this is a classic example of why you have to judge a contract by the breakdown itself, instead of looking at the overall value of the contract. The Jackson deal calls for him to earn a 2012 base salary of $750,000 and he also will receive a $250,000 workout bonus in 2012 in addition. The signing bonus Read more [...]

With the status of Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Mike Wallace currently in limbo, everyone is wondering what the new contract signed today by Vincent Jackson with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers means in relation to what Wallace might be looking for. The contract that Jackson signed was a five-year deal worth a total of $55,555,555.00 with $26 million of it fully guaranteed. That is a bunch of 5's for sure, but the supposed contract numbers that are presented by Pro Football Talk reveal that it is really just a two-year deal worth $26 million as Jackson receives a 2012 fully-guaranteed base salary Read more [...]

On Monday I posted about the new contract that Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stevie Johnson received and warned against using the average per year of the total value of the contract as a measuring stick. I also warned that my projection of the first year cap hit and break down of the contract was a shot in the dark not knowing the full contract structure. Most times what is originally reported as guaranteed money is not always the case and it certainly was not in the case of the Johnson contract. The early word was that the new contract was a five-year, $36.25 million deal with $19.5 million guaranteed. Read more [...]

The Buffalo Bills have agreed to terms today with unrestricted free agent wide receiver Stevie Johnson on a new five-year, $36.25 million contract with $19.5 million guaranteed, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. With that contract now in place, we now have a solid starting point for what Pittsburgh Steelers restricted free agent wide receiver Mike Wallace will be expecting as far as his new deal goes. The average year breakdown of the Johnson contract, which is very dangerous to use as a measuring stick until the full structure is released, comes to $7.25 million. In his first four seasons Read more [...]

Pittsburgh Steelers punter Jeremy Kapinos announced on Twitter Wednesday that he had received his one-year exclusive rights tender offer from the team and now we know that the Steelers other two exclusive rights free agents, running back Isaac Redman and nose tackle Steve McLendon, have also received their one-year tenders as well. The news comes via Scott Brown of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and those tenders were expected. An exclusive rights free agents is defined in the CBA as any player with fewer than three Accrued Seasons as of the end of the 2011 League Year. If an exclusive rights free Read more [...]

There is euphoria in Steeler Nation today thanks to the magic pen used by Pittsburgh Steelers chief contract negotiator Omar Khan over the last 16 days. If you read my work here religiously, you know that all of this comes as no surprise to me. Despite the perceived salary cap hell that the Steelers were faced with immediately after the 2011 season ended, Khan and the Steelers have managed to slash $29.398 million off of the 2012 with the restructuring of five contracts and the termination of two more. If you have not been following along, here is a quick recap of all of the moves that have Read more [...]

According to Ed Bouchette, the Pittsburgh Steelers restructured the contract quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to help free up some additional 2012 salary cap space for the team. The Steelers reduced the 2012 base salary of Roethlisberger all the way down to $900,000 from $11.6 million and that $10.7 million was turned into a signing bonus which will be prorated out over the remaining four years of the contract. The restructure now drops the 2012 cap hit of Roethlisberger from $16.92 million to $8.895 million and creates a 2012 cap savings of $8.025 million. Roethlisberger's redone deal creates Read more [...]

I had a feeling that it would not be too long before Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Mike Wallace chimed in on his pending free agency and he finally did today on SiriusXM NFL Radio. Was I surprised by the comments made by Wallace today during his interview with Adam Schein and Jim Miller? Absolutely not. I would have been more surprised had he said anything different than what he did. Remember that his agent is Bus Cook and this his not his first rodeo when it comes to contract negotiations. Wallace was asked the full gamut of questions by both Schein and Miller as it relates to him potentially Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers have started tendering a few of their free agents as punter Jeremy Kapinos reports via his Twitter feed that he has received his one-year tender. He stated in the tweet that he is excited and preparing to be a Steeler for another year. Kapinos signed back with the Steelers in early November after punter Daniel Sepulveda suffered a meniscus tear in his right knee. Kapinos also had replaced the injured Sepulveda in 2010 because of another knee injury suffered by Sepulveda. Kapinos was back with the Steelers in training camp this past season and was released during the final Read more [...]

Pittsburgh Steelers restricted free agent Mike Wallace was interviewed by Adam Schein and Jim Miller on SiriusXM NFL Radio and was asked about several topics that included the change of offensive coordinators as well as his pending free agency situation. Wallace was asked if his mind wonders to thinking about the possibility of leaving the Steelers and signing with another team. Wallace replied, "Well the position that I am in, I'm always going to think about it sometimes because I have never been in this position before. So it's kind of hard to just not think about anything. So yeah, my mind Read more [...]

With the 2012 NFL combine getting started on Wednesday, I thought now would be the perfect time to give my gut feeling thoughts on what will happen with Pittsburgh Steelers restricted free agent wide receiver Mike Wallace. I have talked extensively about the options the Steelers have in regards to placing a first round tender or using the franchise tag on Wallace, but as I mentioned in the podcast last Friday, the best case solution is to just have him signed to a long term deal before having to use either of those on him. Using just a first round tender is mighty risky, even though it returns Read more [...]