Omar Khan worked hard to create the cap space necessary to sign Derek Watt, Eric Ebron, and trade for Chris Wormley. With that complete, Kevin Colbert admits the Pittsburgh Steelers don’t have room to do much more. For now, anyway. Speaking with Steelers.com’s Missi Matthews, Colbert said the team isn’t likely to add anyone else in the near future.
“I would say at this point we’re on pause and let’s just see where we are,” Colbert said in a Skype interview from his home. The NFL has mandated all teams close down their facilities until early April during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Dave Bryan’s latest projections, the team roughly has just north of $5 million in cap space available. Another million will be tied up in the rookie class and the organization likes to have some breathing room heading into training camp and the regular season, a rainy day fund for any trades and mid-season roster shuffles that have become common. Colbert spoke to a lack of cap space as a reason the team isn’t likely to add another name.
“I think we’re up against [the cap] pretty good. We made a lot of anticipate moves we wanted to make…in the short-term, I don’t want to say we’re out of business, but we’re satisfied with where we are at this point.”
However, in classic Colbert fashion, he left the door open to re-explore the market based on draft meetings and their evaluation of what will be available to them in late April.
“Maybe we go into a draft meeting, come out of a meeting, and say we need to look at another position in free agency. So it’s going to continue to evolve.”
The Steelers currently have only six picks in the draft. Just one in the top 50, two in the top 102, and four in the top 150. That may provide an incentive to add another veteran in the next month, knowing it’ll be difficult to solve all roster needs with that draft capital. Of course, trading down is an option, too, and something the Steelers would be wise to explore on Day Two of the draft.
