Restructuring of OT Willie Colon's Contract Saves $2.85 Million

Why it happens: This is because of the amount of veteran player on the team. Not only veteran player but high talent, high character players that are above average at minimum. These veteran’s contract cost much more than say rookie and younger player contracts. Thus the Steelers get over the cap and need to do something to get under. However they don’t want to cut the veteran talent.

How it happens: The veteran players on this team know that this franchise is one of the best in the NFL. They know that this may be their best chance to win a Super Bowl. They have a comradeship and family atmosphere not many teams have. In order to not lose members of their family or be lost themselves they restructure their deal to free up room. Player want to player here.

However this is just putting off the inevitable situation that someone will get cut form the family. The organization is keeping guys longer not paying them more. This is though directly related to the teams salary. Veteran player have higher contract because it is base on how they perform. So no the organization isn’t paying to much, they just are hesitant to cut ties to veteran and risk sub-par play from rookies or backups.

Wouldn’t you agree that your front office is overpaying some guys if they are forced to restructure how many contracts so far…..7, 8?

I think it just speaks to the great talent that is on this team. Is Woodley over paid? What about Ben? Guys get their fair market value many would get bigger money else where. But thats what happens when you have to pay so many guys on the roster, the cap hits you hard. Also part of the problem is that the rooney didn’t slash salary before the lockout and still tried to field a competitive team. That was their decision and they really didn’t anticipate the cap being so low. We expect it to jump in 2014 but until then things will be tight.

That being said there are some over-paid players on the team but mostly due to injury and age. But those are who normally would get restructured. But the un-expected low cap and the high number of quality players means you have to do more restructuring than normal.

A second round tender to David Johnson, Ramon Foster, Doug Legursky AND Ryan Mundy?

You really think other teams are interested in those players? We’re having a tough time figuring whether Mike Wallace plus an extension, one of the best at a marquee position, is worth a pick not far from the second round.

No one’s gonna give a seventh round pick to sign David Johnson to an extension, I think they’d be safe with original round tenders on all of those guys.

Obviously, his deal was before the second visit to the IR. Where he had some very, very good seasons on the book.

Two seasons lost means he’s due for near 3 years of good? I hope you’re right.

But Colon was not elite before he went down, he was referred to as “on the rise” or something like that. He was improving and had 1 promising year. Now he’s been out for the next 2 full seasons.

There’s hardly any guarantee that Colon will play at a high level even if he can stay healthy. Remember – his contract extension came from the same people who extended Kemo. Colon could come back and be great (oh please God), or he could come back and play like Kemo with a Rolex (he looks the part, but turns out he can’t read the damned watch).

I’d say it’s 50-50 at best that we’ll look back and be happy Colon got a new contract last year, and I’m nervous about the truck loads of cash they threw at him. I hate it because by tying up cap space in a risk like him, it ensures he won’t have any real competition. Like with Kemo, Colon is now too big to fail in the organization. He can suck in camp and we’ll still cut a promising rookie instead because of the cap hit.

Our front office has been brilliant in most areas, but when it comes to the O-line personnel their track record hasn’t been great the past 5 years, and that’s being generous.

The Achilles tear was just icing on the cake.

Can’t ask a man as big as he was to maintain the same energy level throughout a game with that kind of ailment.

They don’t try to cut corners everywhere to save a buck.

They just cut McFadden, which saved them a few million. I get your point though, they haven’t cut corners yet, as in, plural.

(see what I did there?)

His numbers were down because Harrison and Woodley were out so often that he didn’t play his true position much of the season. I have high hopes for him next year.