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The Pittsburgh Steelers continue to revamp their roster to free up salary cap space to accommodate multiple facets of the 2020 roster. First, as of Monday the team was over the 2020 salary cap, which would require them to make moves to get under the cap. Second, after placing the franchise tag on Bud Dupree they would have to free up over $15 million dollars by the new league year Wednesday.
The team has started the process by releasing Mark Barron, Johnny Holton and Anthony Chickillo.
We have terminated the contracts of LB Mark Barron, LB Anthony Chickillo and WR Johnny Holton.https://t.co/FXLGm4G9yD
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) March 16, 2020
As reported earlier in the day, the release of Chickillo saves the team roughly $5 million dollars, and that number got larger with the latest cuts. This per Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Steelers also release ILB Mark Barron and WR Johnny Holton. Barron saves them $5.250 million against the cap; Holton $825,000
— Gerry Dulac (@gerrydulac) March 16, 2020
So, if you do the math, the Steelers have freed up nearly $11 million dollars with the three roster moves today. It is expected Ramon Foster will be added to this list, and could get them close to the necessary number to start the new league year.
But this is just the beginning. If the Steelers want to be players in free agency, and not just spectators, they will need to re-negotiate deals, give new contracts and continue to cut players to do so.
In other words, stay tuned to BTSC for the latest news and notes surrounding the black-and-gold as they prepare for the start of the new league year in a few short days.