As the days click down to the start of the new league year date of March 12, the name of Pittsburgh Steelers guard Willie Colon will remain a talking point as he is one of a handful players that could possibly be released, restructured, or asked to take a cut in salary prior to the Steelers needing to be cap compliant.
Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on Saturday that there has yet to be any talks between the Steelers and Colon\’s agent, Joe Linta about his client possibly taking a pay cut. Colon is scheduled to earn a base salary in 2013 of $5.5 million.
Is this surprising? Not really, because general manager Kevin Colbert insinuated during his interview at the NFL combine in Indianapolis that there was still a lot of work to get done when the group returns to Pittsburgh.
While Linta says that he has yet to be contacted about his client, there is a pretty good chance that the agents of Ben Roethlisberger, Lawrence Timmons, Antonio Brown, and perhaps even LaMarr Woodley have been contacted already to firm up contract restructure plans. There is over $20 million of cap space that be cleared should all four be restructured to the maximum, so the team likely wanted to make sure early in the process that these won\’t be a problem. There is no reason why they wouldn\’t be.
As of last week, Bill Parise, the agent for linebacker James Harrison, said that he has yet to be contacted about his client possibly taking a pay cut. Parise has let be known for quite a while, however, that they are open to restructuring Harrison\’s contract. Whether or not the Steelers are interested in doing so will be known very soon.
The only thing that has really taken place so far this offseason is the signing of futures players to the 2013 roster and a handful of 15 minutes in Indianapolis with draft hopefuls. The Steelers also reportedly talked to Eric Metz, the agent for free agent wide receiver Steve Breaston, while at the combine. There have yet to be any terminations that Colbert suggested after the season ended could take place and no contract restructures have come to light just yet.
Last offseason the Steelers released a handful of players in the second half of February prior to releasing the bigger names right at the beginning March. Judging by the course of action this offseason, we likely have at least another week of waiting until we see more business moves take place.
