The Pittsburgh Steelers parted ways with a former fourth-round draft pick on Friday as cornerback Cortez Allen was released.
Allen, who was drafted by the Steelers in 2011 out of the Citadel, signed a four year contract extension worth $24.6 million just prior to the start of the 2014 season. Since then, he’s only started 7 games and ended both of the last two seasons on the team’s Reserve/Injured list.
The Steelers will save $1.7 million in cap space this year prior to roster displacement if Allen was not designated as a post June 1 release. If, however, he was designated as a post June 1 release, the Steelers will save $4.4 million against this year’s salary cap after June 1 with a dead money charge of $2.7 million carrying over to 2017.
There was a report a few weeks ago that the Steelers asked Allen to take a pay cut this year but that obviously did not take place if indeed he was asked to do so.
During his five seasons with the Steelers, Allen recorded 168 total tackles, 6 interceptions and 3 forced fumbles.
The timing of Allen’s release is a little unusual as it appeared as though they were willing to at least bring him to training camp being as he wasn’t released after the start of the new league year.
At the end of the 2015 season, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was asked if he was confident Allen could become an impact player.
“I’m not,” Tomlin said. “We’ll see.”
With Allen now out of the picture the Steelers are currently left with William Gay and Ross Cockrell when it comes to experienced cornerbacks. The team however, is expecting 2015 second-round draft pick Senquez Golson to play a large role in the team’s defense in 2016 after he missed his rookie year with a shoulder injury. The team also still has cornerback Doran Grant under contract and like Golson, he was drafted last year.
