Year after year, like clockwork, the NFL’s salary cap increases. The Steelers were counting on this annual inevitability to help ease the blow of Ben Roethlisberger’s $41.25 million cap hit. What they weren’t counting on was a pandemic that would crush revenues and force the league to lower the cap.
The final cap number won’t be known for another month or two, but it’s expected to be in the neighborhood of $175 million — or $26 million less than anticipated.
That pretty much eliminates Pittsburgh from signing their own free agents, or anyone else’s, for that matter. And it will mean asking some contracted players to take a pay cut — or be cut. The Steelers will need to do a lot of house cleaning to get cap compliant by the start of the new league year on March 17.
Here are four players that are candidates to be victims of the Steelers salary cap conundrum: