The first offseason contract restructure for the Pittsburgh Steelers has been taken care of as Albert Breer of NFL.com reports linebacker Lawrence Timmons has had his 2013 cap hit lowered roughly $5 million.
Timmons was originally set to earn a $5.375 million base salary in 2013 and also had a roster bonus due him of $2.5 million. The roster bonus and more than $4 million of his base salary were combined together and turned into a signing bonus in order to create the cap savings. The max that the Steelers could have saved with this restructure is $5.37 million and we will have to wait and see if indeed that was the full amount or not.
Timmons is under contract through the 2016 season and this restructure will add on more than $1.7 million in signing bonus proration to each of those years.
That is the first of a few restructures that the Steelers are expected to do prior to March 12, the start of the new league year and when the team must be cap compliant by. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will have his cap number lowered via restructure and the Steelers can save as much as $7.173 million by doing so.
Linebacker LaMarr Woodley and wide receiver Antonio Brown, as I pointed out back in late December, are also candidates to have their contracts restructured this offseason.
