Over the last three days, the Pittsburgh Steelers have been working with some of their highly compensated players to restructure their contracts in such a way that alleviates their burden on the salary cap for the 2013 season.
On Tuesday, it was reported that the Steelers restructured the contract of Lawrence Timmons, which saved over $5 million in cap space. Yesterday, they completed a restructure with Antonio Brown, which saved another $3 million in cap space.
Today, Pittsburgh media outlets are reporting that the team has also completed a restructure with Ben Roethlisberger, which is reported to alleviate a full $6 million from the 2013 salary cap.
With these three contract restructures completed, it is believed that the Steelers are now below the salary cap limit. Although the official salary cap is not as of yet set in stone (though it will be soon), the cap has been reported to be upwards of $123 million, which would be over $1 million more than last season, and more than was anticipated for this year.
At best, however, when factoring in a reported $1.4 million cap credit that the Steelers are entitled to, would only put the team about $3 million below the cap, meaning that there is still a lot of work to be done to complete their roster going into next season.
The team will need around $10 million just to sign their 2013 draft class and their restricted free agents, among them Isaac Redman, Jonathan Dwyer, and Emmanuel Sanders.
The Steelers are expected to restructure the contract of LaMarr Woodley as well in the coming days, which can produce a cap savings in excess of $6 million. That would give the team a lot of breathing room; however, if they intend to re-sign unrestricted free agent cornerback Keenan Lewis, there will be more yet to be done. There is still a threat of a possible termination before all is said and done, which they would like to avoid.
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