As it turns out, everybody in the entire league aside from the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are interested in the recently-released Gerald McCoy, the 2010 third-overall pick who has spent his entire career up to this point playing for the Buccaneers.
Reportedly following months of trying to find a trading partner for McCoy and the $13 million due him this season—none of which was from proration, since he was already past that point of a seven-year contract extension he signed—Tampa Bay released the six-time Pro Bowler earlier this month.
We have previously relayed interest in him from the Cleveland Browns, for a while now. They were reportedly even monitoring his status as a potential trade acquisition. Now he is due to pay a visit to the Browns as his first (and potentially only?) destination as a free agent. He will be there today. Will he sign a contract?
If not, he still has two more chances to land in the AFC North. We also relayed yesterday that the Cincinnati Bengals have interest in pairing him with All-Pro Geno Atkins along the interior of their defensive line.
But apparently, the Baltimore Ravens as well are showing interest in McCoy, in spite of the fact that they already have Brandon Williams and Michael Pierce.
It’s worth noting that all three of them do have the cap space to sign him. The Browns currently have roughly $30 million in cap space remaining even following major acquisitions such as Odell Beckham, Jr and Sheldon Richardson.
The Bengals also have roughly $20 million, while the Ravens have about $15 million, and somebody like Jimmy Smith can be worked on or even released. He has a cap hit of nearly $16 million this year. Baltimore already has Marlon Humprey, Brandon Carr, and Tavon Young at cornerback, and Smith has a lengthy injury history.
Just in case you might be wondering, the Steelers have less than $2 million in cap space. That’s not even enough to cover their future predictable costs. So it’s fair to say that they are not going to be inquiring about whether or not McCoy is interested in taking a veteran-minimum deal.
With three AFC North teams all reportedly interested in him, and all three of them with the room—both schematically and fiscally—to bring him in—there is a fair chance that the Steelers are going to be seeing McCoy twice a year.
They did see him once already last season when they played the Bengals in Week Three. McCoy recorded two tackles, split a sack, and recorded a roughing the passer penalty on Ben Roethlisberger as well, as seen above.
