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 [...]

By Jeremy Hritz The tradition and history of the Pittsburgh Steelers and their success at the position of linebacker is unmatched and envied throughout the National Football League. Over the last several seasons, James Harrison, Lawrence Timmons, James Farrior, and LaMarr Woodley have manned an impenetrable run defense and an aggressive, pressure-producing pass rush. In 2011, injuries hampered the pass rushing effectiveness of Woodley and Harrison, while age limited Farrior’s abilities to not only stop the run, but also to be functional in pass coverage. Larry Foote at times alternated with Read more [...]

A few more names are now surfacing of players that met with the Pittsburgh Steelers at the 2012 NFL combine last week and one of those player was University of Michigan defensive tackle Mike Martin. Martin talked about the meeting with head coach Mike Tomlin during an interview on WBBL radio in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Martin said he had a lot of conversation with a lot of teams while in Indianapolis, but said the one that stuck out the most was the one he had with the Steelers. Martin told The Huge Show, "You know I had a lot of conversations with a lot of teams. I had a lot of formal interviews, Read more [...]

Yet another young draft hopeful that has been linked to the Pittsburgh Steelers for some time now is linebacker Dont'a Hightower from the University of Alabama. The linebacker group was center stage Saturday at the 2012 NFL combine, along with the defensive linemen group, and Hightower got his turn to talk to the media in the afternoon. During his media session Hightower said he measured in on Saturday at 6 foot 2 and weighed 265 pounds. He announced that he hopes to run a 4.6 in 40-yard dash when he takes the field Monday at Lucas Oil Stadium according to Scott Brown from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Hightower 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 [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers have yet to finish solving all of their salary cap problems as they march forward to the start of the new 2012 league year and already Steeler Nation is worried about 2013. The worries are centered around all of the contract restructuring that has been done over the last two seasons. Since the 2011 season ended the Steelers have restructured the contracts of LaMarr Woodley, Lawrence Timmons, Ike Taylor and Willie Colon. These restructures consisted of base salary money being converted to signing bonus and prorated out over the remaining years left on each of the players Read more [...]

It is no secret that the Pittsburgh Steelers had serious salary cap issues heading into the 2012 season and it was easy to see the pending salary cap hell that was coming. I wrote about the forthcoming hell last September as the numbers told the story pretty easily. Lately several have been questioning the abilities of Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert and chief contract negotiator and capologist Omar Khan and wondering how they could let things get to where they are right now. Most of the issues that the Steelers have right now date back to the 2010 uncapped season. Both Colbert and Read more [...]

Pittsburgh Steelers GM Kevin Colbert suggested on Monday that none of the team's remaining 10 unrestricted free agents will be re-signed before the free agency period begins on March 13th and while this news may sound out of the ordinary for some, it is really nothing out of the ordinary for them. The Steelers have made a practice over the years of tendering their restricted free agents that they want to keep and placing the franchise tag on their most notable unrestricted free agent that they want to keep. The only recent notable player that was scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent that Read more [...]

This time of year I always get quite a few questions and comments about the Pittsburgh Steelers salary cap situation. Many are confused as to what a restructured contract is, and many view it as a pay cut. In light of the most recent restructures that the Steelers have done, I thought now would be a good time to try to help clarify a few things in relation to that topic. Let us start with the contract that LaMarr Woodley, who was the first player announced as having his contract restructured, signed before the season started last year. The contract was a 6 year, $61.5 million deal with a $13 Read more [...]

Season 2, Episode 76 of The Terrible Podcast is up and with David Todd out of town traveling, Nick Richetta mans the co-host chair today and we discuss the Thursday Todd Haley introductory press conference along with the interview that quarterback Ben Roethlisberger gave to Ed Bouchette prior to that. We also talk about what this all might mean to the Pittsburgh Steelers offense and the play of Roethlisberger and the young wide receivers moving forward. Quite a lot of discussion we had back and forth on this. We move off of Haley and Roethlisberger and talk about Steelers salary cap guru Omar Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers continue the contract restructures of several players as they continue to make progress towards getting under the salary cap by the start of the new league year in March. The latest to restructure according to Pro Football Talk is cornerback Ike Taylor, who just signed a new 4-year contract last offseason. The Steelers reportedly turned $4.925 million of his $5.75 base salary in 2012 into a signing bonus and stretched it over the remaining 3 years of the contract. This move lowers the $7.5625 million cap hit that Taylor was supposed to count in 2012 down to $4.279 million, Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers have already made a solid dent in the 2012 salary cap problems that they faced heading into the offseason, but there is still a lot of meat left on the bone that needs to be chewed off. The release of Bryant McFadden and Arnaz Battle on Wednesday, combined with the expected contract restructures of LaMarr Woodley and Lawrence Timmons, instantly slashed almost $15.25 million off of the 2012 cap number. Currently I have the Steelers 2012 cap number at just shy of $129 million with the players currently under contract and the current dead money. That number does not include Read more [...]

Not only did the Pittsburgh Steelers restructure the contract of linebacker LaMarr Woodley recently, but they also restructured the contract of linebacker Lawrence Timmons as well according to Ed Bouchette. The numbers of the restructure are not yet available, but as I mentioned in a previous post it likely involved turning a good portion of Timmons' base salary and the $4.5 million roster bonus he is due into signing bonus monies and stretching it out over the remaining years left on the contract. Timmons new contract that he signed prior to the start of the 2011 season had a total 2012 cap Read more [...]