Steelers salary cap: After McCain signing, team sits under $400,000

Veteran WR Darrius Heyward-Bey to visit #Steelers Wed. 7th overall pick in 2009. UFA. Team has just under $400K in cap room

— Ed Bouchette (@EdBouchette) April 1, 2014

It's great joke fodder, for sure. The Steelers have roughly $400,000 available in salary cap space, as Post-Gazette reporter Ed Bouchette tweeted Tuesday. Maybe they could add a few cars for their executive staff.

Or maybe something a little more simple, as Tribune-Review reporter Mark Kaboly suggests.

Steelers had $171K left under the cap BEFORE the McCain signing. Now they have enough for a cup of coffee and a bear claw.

— Mark Kaboly (@MarkKaboly_Trib) April 1, 2014

Their numbers are a tad off, proving again efforts to tabulate the Steelers' salary cap position in real time are often exercises in futility. But when the numbers get that small (relatively speaking), who can tell?

What we really know is without a corresponding roster move, today's scheduled visit with free agent wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey is little more than a "how's your father?" meet-and-greet with no contract expected.

Of course, we've written multiple times now any free agent pursuit will bring with it a roster move of some type geared at creating room under the salary cap (exercise in futility). This was supposedly the reason the Steelers weren't going to sign LeGarrette Blount. Yet, No. 27 is now on the roster.

The Steelers have $8 million freeing up on June 2, so perhaps this is merely the team continuing to investigate any and all options, leaving it clear no offer would come until the summer. There doesn't appear to be much of a market for the former Raiders first round pick who played with the Colts in 2013.

All we know is there's little to believe the Steelers are afraid of that cap ceiling, and they're pushing the envelop aggressively this offseason.