A few of you have asked if the Pittsburgh Steelers still have enough salary cap space to sign Buffalo Bills unrestricted free agent defensive end Alex Carrington and the short answer to that question is, yes, as long as his asking price is not through the roof.
After the Steelers re-signed veteran offensive lineman Guy Whimper on Monday, they have $2,174,434.00 in available cap space and while that might not seem like a lot, it should be more than enough to accommodate Carrington.
If you look at the five year, $25 million contract that safety Mike Mitchell signed last week, his 2014 cap charge resulted is a mere $2.2 million. For the sake of this example, let’s say Carrington’s first year cap charge wound up being the same. (It shouldn’t be that high) You then have to factor in displacement in the top 51.
Currently, the lowest salary in the Steelers top 51 is $420,000, so that would be displaced by Carrington’s imaginary cap charge of $2.2 million. That means it would eat up $1.78 million in additional cap space.
Once again, I don’t expect Carrington to get a contract similar to Mitchell’s, so in reality, the displacement of a new deal for him would use up even less cap space.
So what about free agent wide receiver Lance Moore, can they afford him as well? Being as the Steelers would like to sign him to a one-year qualifying contract, they would have plenty of room for him as well. In fact, they have enough room for several more of those qualifying contracts should that be the route they choose to go.
