Pittsburgh Steelers Salary Cap Analysis: Top 10 'Bang For The Buck' in 2008 Part 1
by Michael Bean on Feb 3, 2009 4:02 PM EST
Email
Print
2008 NFL Salary Cap: ~ $116,729,000.
Pittsburgh Steelers Total Payroll: $ 128,815,061 - includes bonuses that aren't part of what's considered salary. These performance bonuses are why things get so convoluted and tricky to pinpoint to the last red cent.
Pittsburgh Steelers Median Salary: $ 1,001,920
TIER 1 SALARY BRACKET
List of Steelers contributors with cap hits under $1 million median in 2008:
- Tyrone Carter ($ 845,253)
- Willie Colon ($ 546,220)
- Carey Davis ($ 375,760)
- Nick Eason ($ 667,300)
- Keyaron Fox ($ 489,800)
- William Gay ($ 410,266)
- Bryant McFadden ($ 793,110)
- Gary Russell ($ 282,941)
- Matt Spaeth ($ 564,303)
- Darnell Stapleton ($ 378,906)
- LaMarr Woodley ($ 724,800)
- Trai Essex ($ 932,280)
- Byron Leftwich ($ 485,000)
- Anthony Madison ($ 450,760)
- Sean McHugh ($ 445,000)
- Orpheus Roye ($ 485,000)
- Anthony Smith ($ 622,674)
- Limas Sweed ($ 678,333)
- Travis Kirschke ($ 983,360)
- Andre Frazier ($ 565,28)
- Mitch Berger ($ 485,000)
TIER 2 SALARY BRACKET
List of Steelers contributors with cap hits less than 2x $1 million median salary:
- James Harrison ($ 1,550,470)
- Justin Hartwig ($ 1,493,260)
- Chris Hoke ($ 1,481,240)
- Santonio Holmes ($ 1,741,92)
- Chris Kemoeatu ($ 1,423,240)
- Heath Miller ($1,725,760)
- Mewelde Moore ($ 1,105,760)
- Jeff Reed ( $ 1,963,613)
- Lawrence Timmons ($ 1,754,51)
- DeShea Townsend ($ 1,976,82)
- Nate Washington ($ 1,419,88)
- Charlie Batch ($ 1,628,38)
CONCLUSIONS:
Ok, time to rank these guys. I'm not going to sit and think about this incessantly so please jump in and tell me where you may agree or disagree. Starting with the honorary mentions - a job well done and plenty of Return On Investment - but not quite worthy of the top 10.
Honorable Mentions:
- Ty Carter - stability in the secondary at under 900k per year. He's been great value for a few years now, even if he isnt quite starting material, as we saw down the stretch last year.
- Chris Hoke/Travis Kirschke - not dirt cheap commodities, particularly Hoke. But these two provided depth all year, and also filled in tremendously when Casey Hampton and Brett Keisel went down with injuries earlier in the year. A tip of the cap to these grinders who put their pants on one leg at a time each day and just go to work :)
- Jeff Reed- again, not dirt cheap by any stretch. BUT, considering there were 8 NFL kickers who had a bigger hit against their team's cap than did Reed, I have to include him. Reed's a top ten kicker in NFL history, not a top ten kicker in 2008. Pretty simple logic for me.
- Byron Leftwich - Sure, he only appeared in a few meaningful games, but he single handedly turned that Redskins game in our favor, and that W came at an awfully crucial point of the year for us. A Steelers sized salute to Lefty as he likely leaves town to compete for a starting gig.
-
Santonio Holmes - I can't justify putting Holmes in the top ten simply because of the expectations that come along with being such a high draft pick entering year #3. Holmes of course was brilliant at times and is most definitely one of our most prized assets. And he's fairly cheap for now. Gobs of WRs make more money than him, and though I need to examine this closer, I believe Holme's base salary is low and much of his scratch is paid in the form of bizarre bonuses that we'll try to make better sense of this offseason. Keep it up 'Tone!
And now the...
Top Ten 'Bangs For the Buck' in 2008
10) Willie Colon - say what you want about the guy - most of it's grounded in reality - but the bottom line is teams don't usually get 19 starts at a Tackle position in this league without injury for under 500k. I think the team will look to invest more in protecting their ultimate investment - Ben Roethlisberger - but bottom line is we survived this year. Take a look at Trai Essex for example. Not really much better than Colon and twice as expensive. Or how about Max Starks, who made close to $7 million in 08. That's nearly 14x as much as Colon. That's pretty good value.
Before you immediately race off to comment, realize this - the Rooneys are businessmen. They make sound economic decisions in every last move they make. Do you think that they feel Willie Colon is capable of being a bonafide long term solution? I doubt it, at least not at tackle. HOWEVER, you have to consider that keeping Colon on board for just a few pennies basically was a strategic move considering A) how the Max Starks negotiations went down...B) Ben's mega extension...C) Hines Ward's huge cap hit in 2008.
You have to trim fat somewhere and we were able to do that with one of our starting Tackles, who just so happened to start every game. Realize also that Colon's play - not as good as Starks' thats for sure, but not THAT much worse - also gives the team some bargaining power in this offseason when they decide what to do. It will be hard for Starks' agent to press for huge bucks when he didn't outclass Colon by that much. Either Starks comes down to somewhere closer to Colon's pay scale or he walks. Or, Colon commands more on the market than we'd pay and we get a compensatory pick and go back to the drawing board looking for talent in FA and the draft, all the while praying that Tony Hills materializes in the immediate short term.
9) Keyaron Fox - when you help anchor a special teams unit that went from atrocious in 2007 to very respectable in 2008 in his first year in town, Fox has to be considered one of the better values found by any team in free agency this year. Well done Coach Tomlin, Mr. Colbert and the Rooneys. And good job Keyaron. I hope you're back next year and I hope the front office is willing to bump that salary up closer to the $1 million range.
8) William Gay - the 2nd year CB and ST stalwart out of Louisville played in all but a handful of games in both Dick LeBeau's defense and regularly on special teams. He had an INT, 7 passes deflected, 26 tackles and definitely proved his staying power in this organization for the future. At under 500k a year, he's been tremendous early on in his career. He's definitely also been an underappreciated gem of the Steelers generally amazing 2007 draft class.
7) Justin Hartwig - Hartwig's cap hit was just about the same as Sean Mahan's last year. Do I need to say more? Really though, thinking back on the trade of Mahan, I CAN NOT believe that Tampa Bay would give up anything to have gotten him. Had we been forced to cut Mahan, we would have been in a much dicier situation cap wise in 2008 and 2009. We were still on the hook for quite a bit of dough in the form of a prorated signing bonus cap allocation for Mahan. By trading him, we got let off the hook. Whew. Good job Justin playing at least fairly consistent football in the middle of our line all year.
6) Mewelde Moore - Moore debatably belongs higher on this list. He had over 900 combined rushing + receiving yards, 6 TDs, played in all 16 games, and spelled FWP as the starting back for a number of crucial games early on in the season - most notably the Jacksonville and Cincinnati games. Another steal and bang up job by Tomlin finding cheap reliable team first talent.
5) Gary Russell - Considering he earned about the same money as guys like Jon Dekker, Scott Paxson, and Donovan Woods, it's easy to understand why Russell belongs here. He returned kicks, albeit only decently, he ran the ball along the goal line, he played on the coverage units, and oh yeah, he made less than 300k per year.
4) Bryant McFadden - lock down corners don't usually cost under 800k per year. Had McFadden stayed on the field for more games than he did, I would probably put him even higher. We shall see what happens in the offseason, but given the Steelers history of only doing extensions the year before contracts expire, I think we likely know that B-Mac has played his last down of football in the Steel City. If so, good luck and thanks for being an integral part of an elite pass defense the past two years!
3) Darnell Stapleton - This is not to say that Stape was the 4th best player on the team. No, no. Just a tremendous ROI from him considering where he came from, an undrafted rookie free agent two years ago from 'powerhouse' Rutgers. Stapleton went from being on the fringes of the practice squad or being cut to being a very important starter for the Steelers after Kendall Simmons went down against Baltimore early on. Stapleton had his ups and downs, but remember - he was inserted into the lineup soon after the Philly debacle and the offense had some very respectable showings in pass protection and running the football in the immediate weeks following. Stapleton struggled some down the stretch but there's no doubt in my mind that he will be able to compete for a starting job on a Super Bowl caliber team in the future. And for now, with him earning just a pittance, it's a no brainer to keep him around and available for whatever may materialize in 2009. KUDOS DARNELL!
2) LaMarr Woodley - Enjoy the value while it lasts Steelers fans and Steelers ownership. It ain't lasting too long. Woodley's got a chance to be one of the great LBs in Pittsburgh history, but he won't come cheap. He's a good kid from all accounts though so I wouldn't be shocked to see him take a smallish sized pay cut in order to hang around a winning organization like Pittsburgh. We'll see. An amazing breakout year for Wood in his second professional season.
1) James Deebo Silverback I'll Pierce A Hole Through Your Soul With My Glare Harrison - Defensive Player of the Year; Steelers record for sacks in a season; longest play in SB history, a game changing dagger to the Cardinals just before the half. 'Nuff said.
47 comments
|
3 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Anthony Madison
I thought Madison had an awesome year on ST this year. I realize he’s making more than Gay who actually plays on defense, but Madison is still under 500,000 and I thought him and Fox were the reason the ST were so much better this year. I would love it if the Steelers can bring both of them back so our ST unit doesnt take step back next season.
Totally agree w everything else, especially w Colon as much as people would hate to admit it
definitely legit
i suppose he could have been a 9a/9b selection with Fox – like Kirsh and Hoke in the Hon Mention. BUt that seemed a bit fraudelent for the actual top ten list. Im curious who had more ST tackles between the two of them.
I gave Fox the nod because of his HUGE recovery of Holmes’ muffed punt in the BAL game :)
A couple things
Trading Mahan gives the same cap hit as cutting him. We already paid him his SB, which is the only guaranteed part of the contract. That’s pro-rated as far as the salary cap is concerned until he is traded or cut, so we’re still on the books for the same overall amount of cap space. The Bucs will pay him the non-guaranteed part, but if we had cut him instead of trading him, the cap implications would be the same. As it stands, I think we’re on the books for $2.4M for him in 2009. At least we don’t have to see him in sweatpants on the sidelines…
Man, $2.28M for Harrison and Woodley. That’s a mere $66k per sack. it’s good to be a Steelers fan.
If you consider experience (since young guys have little say in how much they make), Hartwig, Moore, and obviously Harrison are our best deals. We would not have won the SB without those 2 signings last offseason. Keep it up, boys!! If they can find a Hartwig-like guard for cheap, we’ll be in a lot better position at draft time.
charity standing orders
incorrect at least i think
Are you sure about teams being liable for SB in the event of a trade?? I dont think thats correct. I think only if theyre cut.
the prorated portion of the signing bonus transfers to new team, at least whats left of whtas owed. At least thats my understanding.
maybe this is part of the confusion
(player name and cap hit are just for examples purposes and are not real figures)
The Pittsburgh Steelers release James Farrior (1 Million salary, 1 Million signing bonus for a total cap hit of 2 million) for a cap penalty of $1 Million Dollars.If you trade a player there will be a cap penalty as well. However the cap penalty for trading a player is not the full signing bonus. For trading a player the cap penalty will be 50% of the signing bonus. In the above example if the Steelers traded James Farrior at the contract numbers listed the cap penalty would be $500,000 for trading him. That is 50% of his 1M signing bonus. You still save the base salary in all situations when trading or releasing a player.
If you release a player you just traded for the cap penalty is the total contract amount, both base salary and signing bonus. We do not want teams to trade for players and release them therefore there is a full cap penalty equal to the total cap hit.
Of course, I just snagged this from http://www.footballsfuture.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=6301458, and it could be just as wrong.
Wow
That was waaay more confusing than it needed to be. There are a lot of variables with multi-year deals and pro-rated SB’s. The cap hits of the SB’s are spread out over the length of the contract, but if a player retires, gets cut, or is traded before June 1st, the rest of the cap hit for the SB “accelerates” to that year. If it’s after June 1st, that year’s cap hit stays the same, and the remaining cap hit goes to the following year. Here’s some stuff from askthecomish.com, question 1.12:
What happens if a player is traded or retires?
Answer: We already know that if a player is waived on or before June 1, the remaining signing bonus that has not been included in salary "accelerates" and is included in that year’s team salary. Acceleration also occurs when a player is traded or waived and picked up by another team. The new team is not responsible for any of the original signing bonus. The team that waived or traded the player is responsible for the accelerated signing bonus (in the same manner as described above).
charity standing orders
It’s clear to me that I’m not going to even bother to try and learn all the rules.
Don't worry about the haters. Haters only hate.
To elaborate a little more
Let’s look at Mahan’s contract from a cap perspective, since it’s a good example. He recieved a 5 year, $17M contract with a $4M signing bonus and $13M in base salaries. We actually handed him a check for $4M when he signed, but as far as the cap is concerned, signing bonus gets even spaced over the 5 years, so $800k each year. I can’t remember exactly how the base salaries were spaced out, but lets say they were $2M, $2.5M, $2.5M, $3M, $3M for each year.
If the deal had played out, the cap hits every year would have been $2.8M, $3.2M, $3.2M, $3.8M, $3.8M.
As it turned out, the first year went as planned, so a $2.8M cap figure, but then we traded him before the 2008 season. The Bucs are not responsible for the SB, but they will pick up his base salary. They have the advantage of being able to cut him for free, since base salaries are not guaranteed, although they did give up a draft pick for him. Based on the years of the deal, the Bucs cap hits will be $0, $2.5M, $2.5M, $3M, $3M. If they cut him at any point, his cap hit goes to $0 from then on.
For us, trading him has the same cap implications as cutting him. If we had traded or cut him before June 1st, 2008 (basically the start of the new season), his remaining prorated SB cap number ($3.2M, or $4M minus the first year’s $800k) would have hit us in 2008, and he would be off the books in 2009. Instead, our 2008 cap number for him was $800k – his SB as planned but without the base salary since we were no longer responsible for that. In 2009, however, we’re still on the hook for the rest of his SB ($2.4M, or $4M minus the first 2 years’ $800k). As things turned out, his cap numbers for us are $2.8M, $800k, $2.4M, $0, $0.
Hopefully that clears things up a little instead of muddying the waters.
charity standing orders
heath?
Granted he isn’t on the small salary side of that list. But not even an honorable mention for our big boy? In my book put him in at 7 instead of Hartwig – who I think was solid but not too much more.
good point
cost about the same – but I put Hartwig there because of the massive upgrade in play over mahan for the same price.
Unfortunately, Heath wasnt involved as much as he should have been until the final 1/4 of the season. thats not his fault – but my unscientific metric was production vs. what they cost and heath wasn’t able to produce as much statistitcally as his talents might have allowed him to.
you have a good point though.
BTW
Found a link that has some different numbers not sure what’s accurate. It is interesting to note that the Steelers are the 5th highest payroll in the game (only going to grow) while the Ravens, Patriots and Colts all rank at the bottom.
Also found this story from the beginning of the year asking if Ben is worth 27 Million this year. I guess its kind of hard to argue that he isn’t.
by SteelerBuddha on Feb 3, 2009 5:30 PM EST up reply actions
salary vs cap hit
certain bonuses dont count against the cap. Thats why team payroll is over the SALARY cap. The numbers – at least the base pay + SB = about the same numbers precisely. It’s the performance bonuses that are so wicked confusing and skew the numbers up even higher. Ben for example, did not count 26 mil against the cap this past year.
I am not sure I actually get it
but here is some salary cap analysis, with some interesting tid-bits.
Love the rumored Terell Suggs – Anqouin Boldin trade. Now that would be interesting for us.
Reading the salary cap woes of other teams, you get a sense of how smart the Rooneys have been in managing this franchise.
by SteelerBuddha on Feb 3, 2009 5:45 PM EST up reply actions
Ben's Cap hits
steelersalarycap.com has always been a great resource for this stuff, but it’s been down for almost a year now. He did do some analysis of Ben’s contract right when it happened, though, and I remember a bit about it. Basically, he got $102M over 8 years and a $36M guaranteed SB, which prorates to $4.5M a year. His base salaries vary by year, and escalate a lot after 2009, perhaps because of the CBA issues. IIRC, his total cap hits for 2008 and 2009 are $8-10M, then 2010 and 2011 are around $15-16M, and then he hovers around $12-13M for the remainder of the contract.
As far as being worth $27M a year, the problem with those USA today numbers is they only consider how much cash a player is handed in a given year, not the overall value of the contract. We paid Ben $27M this year for his services this year and the right to pay him $5-10M for the next 7 years, so we got value on top of what he did this year.
charity standing orders
Thats why
Is much better to draft after 20s, the salary of the top 10 is ridiculous, and we can get guys like Holmes, Miller, for less than 2mi! I Bet Calvin Johnson, Vernon Davis, hat WR Dolphins got at 9(Forgot) make more than 4 mi a year for sure! CJ makes around 6mi I think!
Ted Ginn
is the dolphins WR, pretty sure hes making around 3-4 million a year, i think 5 years 19 million???
Totally agree, the amount top draft picks get paid is absolutely ridiculous and with the Steelers constantly not having to deal with that is great.
I am just going to keep chucking up links
Here is a link to the most prominent free agents on the market. The page I linked to includes O-linemen, but the links at the bottom of the page allow you to navigate by position. Not all players are listed.
It would be interesting for each SBNation blog to write up a review of all its free agents. I feel like these descriptions are good, but only up to a point. The fans do better homework then these sites these days.
by SteelerBuddha on Feb 3, 2009 5:48 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
That would be fantastic
I think a ton of people want to get a sense of how the fanbase of each team views its free agents/ especially those who aren’t on the national radar yet.
by SteelerBuddha on Feb 3, 2009 5:59 PM EST up reply actions
another link of free agents
I posted this Scout.com under a different topic, but it has write-ups, as you requested:
http://profootball.scout.com/a.z?s=127&p=9&c=12&nid=83&lnid=83&yr=2009
can somebody at work tomorrow
throw our Free Agents into a spreadsheet that includes whether they are unrestricted, restricted, exclusive rights FA. Need that badly and I need to, um, tend to life a bit.
Blitz, I just emailed you a UBER-Basic excell spreadsheet, nothing specail.
I'll drink your Milkshake, I'll drink it up!
by Frank Mineo (DYMS) on Feb 4, 2009 6:55 AM EST up reply actions
Moore vs. Russell
My first thought was that I would have put Moore higher than Russell, but considering that Moore is getting paid over 4 times what Russell is, I think you’re right.
by WolfpackSteelersFan on Feb 3, 2009 5:54 PM EST reply actions
maybe i'm in the minority here
but I think Russell could be a very good running back in this league, much more than just a goal line guy.
I agree
I wasn’t saying he’s worthless or anything. I just don’t think he was fully utilized at all this year. But, he was dirt cheap (in NFL salary terms).
by WolfpackSteelersFan on Feb 4, 2009 4:14 PM EST up reply actions
buddha
here’s the best i can describe it:
$ 2,500,000 $ 25,200,000 $ 1,920 $ 27,701,920 $ 7,971,920
Those numbers represent:
1) base salary 2) signing bonus of the deal 3) other non identified bonus 4) total salary earned in 2008 5) cap hit in 2008.
SO, because he signed the contract and got that phat signing bonus in 2008 – ALL that is considered 2008 salary. But the way the salary cap is set up under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the whole signing bonus is divided up by the number of years of the deal. Then, each prorated section counts for the individual years of the contract.
So 25.2 million/8 years = $3.15 mil + 2.5 mil base salary + 1.92 mil in other bonuses (this is the prorated amount of the first of two years LEFT on his INITIAL contract)
$3.15 + 2.5 +1.92 = 7.92.
#3 initially should read
remainder of his prorated signing bonus from rookie contract.
SHOULD NOT READ – other non identified bonuses.
Ok got it
thanks for the breakdown…. is there a link that actually breaks it down like this for all our players – plus lets us know what their deals look like down the line?
by SteelerBuddha on Feb 3, 2009 7:33 PM EST up reply actions
Man our FO rocks
Looking at that list, people have to be shat’in themselves.
Your starting line was under 4 million for four guys. Thats unheard of. Granted, you get what you pay for. But we did get a ring out of the deal.
All the possible O-line scenarios are way too complicated, but I’m confident it goes below 40 sacks next year.
As far as the DB situation. I really do think B-Mac can stick around. I hope so. William Gay has proved to be solid, but Deshea is old and you ideally want 3 solid players at that position. B-Mac leaves, and we have almost 2.
Running Backs
I see that Parker made nearly $4 million in 2008, and Mendenhall took home $2.8 million. That’s nearly $7 million in running backs who, because of injuries/poor blocking/no fullback/ phases of the moon didn’t really deliver. Throw in Parker’s mid-season grousing, and Mewelde Moore’s great production, and I’m wondering if we ask Parker to take a paycut — or even dangle him as trade bait.
Hell no
Parker did not “grouse”
People read into that WAY too much. He was asking them to run a damn formation that works. And guess what, we did it. We plowed all over Whales Vagina in the first postseason game because we used I – Form.
Yes he was injured THIS year, but he played solid for the last 3 so why are people not looking at that.
Nobody would trade anything worthwhile for him either.
Keep him around, he has plenty of gas in the tank and just like everyone else on this team, was injured t at some point.
Exactly….If the Steelers think he sucks so bad, I have a hard to understanding why every other team is going to trade their whole draft for him.
I'll drink your Milkshake, I'll drink it up!
by Frank Mineo (DYMS) on Feb 4, 2009 3:43 PM EST up reply actions
Stapleton,etc.
Look for Darnell Stapleton to come back next year not only more experienced,but bigger and stronger as well.
McFadden may have given a clue to his intentions by talking on camera post-game about there being no reason that they can’t come back and win another one next year.
And how about Timmons for value in his second season? The kid looks like he’s going to be tremendous.
That reminds me of something I’ve been worried about for the past few days. Our linebackers are tremendous. We know it, they know it, everyone knows it.
We’re going to have Woodley (beast), Harrison (beast), Timmons (maybe a beast, but will cost a beast thanks to his agent)…that is going to be a lot of money to keep these guys around. Not sure if we’ll be able to keep this corps together. I wonder if the Steelers will expect to let Deebo go later in his career and try and keep the other two. It’s a bit sad, so lets enjoy it while it lasts. Besides, it isn’t like the FO can’t do this again when they want to go after LBs.
Don't worry about the haters. Haters only hate.
couldnt include Timmons
He was close considering his contributions on ST. It’s not an apples to apples comparison, but take Jerod Mayo for example as a rookie LB who was able to come in and really contribute as a rook. Or Patrick Willis a few yyears ago. Different schemes of course, but similar draft positions. Timmons is going to be great, but couldnt justify putting him there in year 2 partly because the coaches didnt have him in there enough this year. Next year I’m sure he’ll be amazing.
2 ifs
IF Foote leaves
and
IF Timmons steps it up
Our linebackers next year are going to be an absolutely sick set of players.
Don't worry about the haters. Haters only hate.
even if foote stays
Timmons is going to be phased in a ton more. He’ll be in year 3 and 23 years old. It’s just about his time. And there’s just no reason at all to think he won’t be dynamite out there
Totally agree
But the one good thing to remember is that Timmons is actually a little bit younger than Mayo – even though he came out a year ahead of him. Timmons will be an absolute beast next year. I imagine Foote will be gone next year because of his cost and the 1st rounder breathing down his neck. Unless the Steelers prefer to groom Timmons to take over for Farrior. Not sure how much versatility there is in where he can play, but we should remember that Farrior is a linchpin for our D and he can’t sustain his current level forever.
by SteelerBuddha on Feb 4, 2009 7:30 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Farrior
Just to follow up Farrior is our oldest starter. (I don’t count Mitch Berger) He is turned 35 during the playoffs. Do we have somebody in the pipeline to replace him?
Well
We just signed him to a few more years, so he’ll probably be the guy for a while. I actually like our group of promising young LB’s and ST’s (Fox, Bailey, Humpal, Frazier, Davis, Woods, A. Harrison) and I think there’s a good chance that someone will step up from that group and be a passable starter to complement Timmons.
charity standing orders
Completely agreed. We have no “stars” in the waiting, but I see a lot of potential from our young ST players. I especially like Bailey, who seems to be one smart SOB – I like having a smart ringleader for the LBs. Woods looked impressive early in the year on ST, and I thought he performed very well in the pre-season.
Don't worry about the haters. Haters only hate.
My recommended off-season moves
I have to say, while I commend the Steeler O-Line for how they played in the Super Bowl, I still believe they are the weakest link and need to clearly be the focus of the Steelers off-season moves. The problem is that I don’t know of any offensive lineman that is available who would be worth paying for, but then again, the Steelers do have a knack for taking no-names and turning them into super stars. That being said, perhaps they seriously need to consider drafting a lineman in the first round and developing that person. I also think they need to draft a good punter and get rid of Mitch Berger. If they need to free up salary cap money, I would start by cutting Anthony Smith and renegotiate Mendenhall’s contract. If they still need to free up salary cap money, while I would love to see them stay, the Steelers can afford to let go of Foote and, if that’s still not enough, Timmons is ready to take step in if Farrior wants to test the free agent market again.
Most of all, I hope the Steelers can somehow to hold onto as many of the starters as possible so they can have consistency. I realize that it is very hard to keep players in this age of free agency, but maybe the Steeler organization can reverse the trend. I will even go as far as to say that maybe they should consider keeping the O-Line together so that they can get better at working as a team, and instead of changing players, maybe they should keep the O-Line together and get a new O-Line coach.
These are just my thoughts with no real analysis to support it, so I’m open to feedback from my fellow members of Steeler Nation.
weve got a good punter
Sepulveda will be back next year.
Other propositions you mention seem reaonsable for sure.
by Michael Bean on Feb 11, 2009 5:46 AM EST up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
"Thoughtful discussion with a sense of history."
Art Rooney Jr.
"Level-headed thinking." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
