There is just one week to go now before the start of the 2013 league year. The Pittsburgh Steelers are already under the $123 million cap number with a current Rule of 51 number of roughly $121,065,372.66 after the signing of cornerback William Gay on Monday. That number includes the $1.4 million cap credit that they are also reportedly due.
As you can see, that number is just $1,934,627.34 under the $123 cap number. Next up for the Steelers will be tendering of the restricted and exclusive rights free agents that they wish to keep. The restricted free agent list consist of Jonathan Dwyer, Jeremy Kapinos, Steve McLendon, Isaac Redman, Stevenson Sylvester and Emmanuel Sanders. The exclusive rights free agents are Baron Batch and DeMarcus Van Dyke. My best guess is that all except Kapinos will be tendered, but that is only a guess.
As of Tuesday there still has been no confirmation that linebacker LaMarr Woodley has had his contract restructured. If done, that could free up to another $6.1875 million in cap space, which would easily accommodate the $4.74 million worth of cap space needed to low tender everyone but Kapinos after displacement. Should that wind up being the course of action, then the Steelers would be $3,979,907.34 under the $123 million cap come the start of the new year.
Should the Steelers wind up not restructuring Woodley, then the Steelers would need to either terminate a few contracts, restructure a different players\’ contract or ask a few players to take a reduction in their 2013 base salary.
As previously outlined in other post, the Steelers will need more cap room to accommodate any free agents, either their own or others, that they wish to sign. There has already been contract talks with linebacker Larry Foote, who more than likely will be re-signed at some point. They also have to plan ahead to accommodate the extra cap space needed for their 2013 draft class down the road.
Should Woodley wind up not being restructured, then we could be in for an interesting next few days. General manager Kevin Colbert has indicated all offseason that a few terminations could likely happen, but up until this point there hasn\’t been any outside of running back Chris Rainey being waived because of his offseason indiscretions.
