The Steelers are now in their offseason after failing to reach the playoffs in 2022, coming up just a game short of sneaking in as the seventh seed. They needed help in week 18 and only got some of it, so instead they sat home and watched the playoffs with the rest of us.
On tap is figuring out how to be on the field in January and February instead of being a spectator. They started out 2-6, digging a hole that proved too deep to dig out of even if they managed to go 7-2 in the second half of the year.
Starting from the end of the regular season and leading all the way up to the beginning of the 2023 season, there are plenty of questions that need answered, starting with who will be the offensive coordinator. Which free agents will be kept? Who might be let go due to their salary? How might they tackle free agency with this new front office? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout this offseason, as we have for many years.
Question: Will the Steelers release any other players before the start of free agency?
The Steelers became cap compliant and then some in one fell swoop yesterday with the announcement that they had released cornerback William Jackson III, due eight digits in salary and bonuses for the 2023 season. They were just slightly over the cap and now have a fair bit of breathing room—for now.
While they have predictable future expenses, those don’t have to be worried about now, because they can figure out in time by what means they would like to create cap space. But if they do intend to further release players, that’s very likely to happen much sooner rather than later.
That is to say, the Steelers are not the sort of team that would carry a Myles Jack deep into the season if they anticipated that he would be a salary cap casualty by the end. Now, does that means he would be 100 percent guaranteed a roster spot? Of course not. After all, just last year we saw the Steelers cut Joe Schobert after signing Jack.
But I think we can reasonably anticipate that anybody who was going to be cut due to their cap burden would be cut in the near future, and most probably before the start of free agency. There are candidates, Jack being one of them.
They already got rid of the most obvious contract, and rightly or wrongly, a lot of people still feel quarterback Mitch Trubisky could be on it as well, or at least should be. Cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon is another option.
Considerably lesser ones would include Montravius Adams, Gunner Olszewski, and Miles Killebrew. The latter two would hardly produce more than $1 million in cap savings after displacement, and you can add half a million on top of that for Adams.
