What is our salary cap situation like?

by houksyndrome on Nov 21, 2008 9:50 PM EST Comment 13 comments

Do we have the money to sign Brandon Jacobs? I don't know how many guys we need to resign in the offseason. However, imagine what we would be like if we had a power running game? We have a phenomenal defense, a good QB. If we had a power running game I think we would be the best team in the NFL - we might be anyways, let's face it, if we hadn't negated a TD with a holding penalty and our long snapper hadn't been injured we may well have beat the Giants. I think we are very close to being a great team - could Brandon Jacobs be our missing piece?

0 recs | Comment 13 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Jacobs

He’s very likely to sign with the giants again. He’s so vital to their winning they will break the bank for him. At the very least the Giants will likely franchise him. And even if they dont keep him i doubt the Steelers FO will pay anything for him

by archon095 on Nov 21, 2008 11:31 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I like Jacobs

but the reason he is so successful is bc of their O-line. Notice all 3 of their backs (Bradshaw & Ward) have been having good years. We need to spend money on Olineman if they become available.

by _ET_ on Nov 22, 2008 12:15 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

We should have a lot of cap room

The cap is scheduled to go up, plus Marvel is gone ($6.5M), Starks is gone ($7M), and Ward ($7M) will probably renegotiate. I’d guess we’ll have between $20M-$30M of space. The lower end of that might be more realistic because some of the older contracts are going to escalate, and we have to pay the rest of Sean Mahan’s signing bonus next year ($2.4M).

So we have some decent space, but we also have to figure out how we’re going to replace our free agents. Marvel, Starks, Kemoeatu, BMac, and Washington are all free agents, and we’re not going to replace all of them through the draft. The sense around here is that McFadden is priority #1. His injury (which isn’t a long term red flag in any sense) should help keep his price down, since no one knows who he is. I’d bet a 5 year deal for about $4M/yr would lock him up (similar to Ike’s deal), although I’d be willing to pay a little more. With all of Marvel’s injury problems, it’s possible that he’s be ridiculously cheap (close to the vet min), and if he has surgery and looks decent at all, I’d be willing to give him a small deal to help ease the transitition of our OL. It’s pretty much a given that we need to draft a top rookie OT and possibly another one, but if Marvel could even play decently for 6-10 games next year, he’d be worth it. Kemo is inconsistent and would probably be cheap if we didn’t just stick with Stapleton, Simmons, and Hartwig (and Colon? wait, n/m…) on the interior. That would definitely fit better with the zone blocking/pass oriented scheme we may be transitioning to.

Anyway, we’ll have some cap space, but we’ll also be considering signing Miller to an extension, as well as Colon if we decide to keep him around. Right now we have a quality starting RB, a young first round RB, a great utility guy in Moore, and a pretty decent power back in Russell. I don’t think a power running team signs it’s QB to a $100M+ deal, and I don’t think a team drafts a RB in the first round to make a high profile signing of a RB the next year. That’d be like Minnesota signing Jacobs because they don’t have a true “power back”.

charity standing orders

by BadMaafala on Nov 22, 2008 8:41 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

good take

i’ll try to do a post on our cap situation this week witih 10 days off.

agree with ure thoughts though Bad

by Blitzburgh on Nov 22, 2008 10:22 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Trading mahan for a 7th round pick was really a boneheaded maneuver. The only reason I’m happy about it is because it means that Z can’t suddenly decide that Mahan should be the starter, because he’s an idiot. Otherwise it was really a poor choice – we’re on the hook for plenty of money, we need depth on the OL right now (hello?!), and a 7th round pick will be nice for trading up but is basically worthless. We do better with UDFA’s than 7th rounders.

by steelguy99 on Nov 22, 2008 12:20 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, Mahan would look good as a backup right now.

charity standing orders

by BadMaafala on Nov 22, 2008 2:13 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Also, Harrison is going to be a URFA in 2009, and Woodley will be a RFA in 2009. Sure as shit the FO is considering locking up those two guys.

by steelguy99 on Nov 22, 2008 12:21 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Just to clarify, Harrison will be a FA after 2009, so FA in 2010. Also, Woodley is in year 2 of a 4 year deal, so he’ll be a UFA in 2011. I’m not worried about Woodley because the FO is going to look at him as a future cornerstone of the defense. The labor situation could change things a lot by then, but I’m sure he’s not going anywhere.

Harrison is a very interesting case. He’s already 30 (only one year younger than Porter), but he has very few “miles” on him. We have him locked up at an embarrasingly low price through 2009. Career wise, it would be a terrible decision for him to play next year for the $1.5M he’s scheduled to make – after which he’ll be 31, past his prime, not having had a big contract yet. I also question how smart it would be for us to sign him to a 4-5 year extension for what he’d be worth on the open market. He seems like a pretty weird guy, though, and a lot of players would have held out after last season. The best case for both sides might be to sign a 3 year extension (4 years total) for a reasonably high price. I don’t think things will get ugly with him, but a lot of NFL players have made a big fuss over an awful lot less. Deon Branch comes to mind.

charity standing orders

by BadMaafala on Nov 22, 2008 2:09 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Thanks for the clarification. Harrison is a weird dude but I think he likes playing for the steelers, though maybe he’s a bit bitter it took him quite a few years to start. I think 3 years is probably how it is going to shakedown, and he’ll likely be worth the money in the meantime. We have some guys that will probably be good linebackers in a few years, but Harrison is too damn dominating to not keep around.

I just think that the FO will want to do a deal with him this off-season, as one more year isn’t going to help us in fighting for a contract.

by steelguy99 on Nov 22, 2008 5:30 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Jacobs

I would love nothing more than to take Jacobs from NY for several reasons, most of all just to spite my best friend who has gloated ever since they got Plax. Anyways I digress. I know I keep going on about him being a FA at the end of the year, but we don’t need him. We are stacked at RB and adding another would mean letting someone go and you don’t let younger talent go for a 26-27 yr old guy who not only gives a lot of punishment but also takes it. I will admit I don’t know how old JB was when we signed him, but I wouldn’t sign Jacobs given the backfield we have now.

Sure would be fun though to have a back like that again, but Willie hopefully shakes the injury bug and we still don’t know what exactly Mendenhall is going to bring, but it sure looked good before Thug Lewis took him out.

On the money side, we aren’t going to pay top dollar for a RB when we need an O line to protect the $102M man. There are other teams, most likely the Giants that will definitely do that.

by Silverback92 on Nov 22, 2008 9:12 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Who stays who goes?

I personally would sign Bmac, sign Kemo, Marvel and Starks are done, Washington may have to go. I just don`t see us paying him when we have Sweed being prepped as we speak.

What does that leave us with? Work to do on the O line in the draft. Like many have already stated, we HAVE to draft a tackle in the first, and probably a tackle in the second or third.

by SteelerDomination on Nov 23, 2008 3:16 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

I think there’s a good chance that none of our signings are going to be particularly expensive, with the possible exception of BMac (depending on how he plays the rest of the year). Kemo, Marvel, and Starks are all undesirable OL’s who would sign for pretty cheap if they wanted to stay. I doubt Starks wants to stay, but if he did, he’d be the most desirable of that group since our tackle situation is such a mess.

charity standing orders

by BadMaafala on Nov 23, 2008 2:37 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs