Last week, the Pittsburgh Steelers made a roster move that involved the placing of cornerback Justin King on injured reserve and in doing so it freed up a little bit of cap space in the process.
According to the NFLPA, King no longer counts in the Steelers Rule of 51 during the offseason being as he is not part of the 90 man roster at this point. Since King\’s $715,000 was then displaced in the top 51 by a $480,000 base salary of another player on the team, the Steelers cleared $235,000 in cap space with the move.
Now, the Steelers will eventually have a 53 man roster at the start of the season, and all players on their injured reserve will also count against the cap at that point, but I suspect that King will be healed and released from injured reserve long before that date.
As the Steelers head into their mandatory mini camp next week, they currently sit roughly $4.4 million under the cap. Being as there are a few players who currently sit in the top 51 that are unlikely to make the final 53 man roster (Brian Rolle, Kion Wilson, John Parker Wilson) this will help clear some additional money that will accommodate the final two salaries that will make up the 53.
So essentially, the Steelers are right where they need to be at this point in the offseason when it comes to cap space, and they should have the ability to extend one or two contracts during training camp should that be their plan.
