Steelers Safety Mike Mitchell Restructures: Yikes
The Steelers signed safety and former Carolina Panther Mike Mitchell to a surprising and rather generous five year, $25 million deal in 2014.
After the season that Mitchell had in 2014, one would say that Mitchell swindled the Steelers out of their money.
Constantly out of position, slow to close in on ball carriers or receivers, and an affinity to run his mouth with excuses, Mitchell was not a fan favorite. In fact, many had called for his dismissal the moment the Steelers season came to a close after their Wild Card loss.
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Unfortunately, for those who can’t stand Mitchell – and believe the numbers are high – the Steelers have no intentions of cutting him…. yet.
On Tuesday, the Steelers restructured a pair of contracts – one of them being Mitchell’s. What is unique about Mitchell’s restructure is that it only encompasses one year. This one.
According to Overthecap.com, Mitchell and the Steelers are moving $3.255 million in salary to a signing bonus to reduce his 2015 cap charge by just over $2.44 million. The rest of his remaining years (3) were left untouched. He is still due $5 million each of those years.
It’s easy to feel disappointed that the Steelers front office felt inclined to give Mitchell another chance even though 99.99% of his performance demanded his release. But, fear not, Steeler Nation. All is not lost.
Because the Steelers played ‘funny money’ with only a single year of the four years remaining on Mitchell’s contract, I would argue that the coaches and Kevin Colbert are keeping him on a very short leash.
He is still getting paid the same amount of money this season. The signing bonus restructuring does not touch any moeny beyond this one. Typically restructured contracts convert base salaries over several years in to signing bonuses, or divert portions of the salaries to later years.
Since that wasn’t part of this deal, there’s still an opportunity for the Steelers to have an out that won’t cost them any more in cap hits. For the record, Mitchell can be cut post-June 1st and save the team $5 million each season until the contract expires.
Hey, it would be great if Mitchell would pan out and become a halfway decent safety. I don’t really see that happening, and hopefully the Steelers can work some economic magic to keep Mitchell on the roster until June 2nd of 2016 and save themselves some big time cash.