Steelers News: Weapons, Williams, Contracts

The Steelers players head into the offseason for recovery and the coaches head out to prepare for free agency and the draft.

Steelers season never truly ends for Steeler Nation so while the offseason starts to heat up we’ll be busy looking for mentions of your Black & Gold so we’ve got you covered. Here’s your Steelers Morning Huddle for Tuesday, Mar. 1^st.

Draft luxury

It’s been long established that the Pittsburgh Steelers build their team through the draft. They don’t spend a lot of time outside of their own complex for free agents and they’ve gone by this principal for the past 83 NFL seasons.

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler suggests that this year the Steelers have a luxury going into the draft because of their offensive weapons already on the roster.

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Fowler specifically discusses the role of tight ends in the draft knowing that the Steelers will be without Heath Miller since his retirement. He highlights how many other offensive weapons the Steelers have and how they won’t necessarily need to search of a pass-catching tight end to contribute right away.

I’m not sure how accurate this is, though. While there’s no denying that an offense that features a cast the likes of Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, Le’Veon Bell, DeAngelo Williams, Martavis Bryant, etc. is loaded it doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t need anything else.

Pee Heckler

It’s tough to pass up a story that’s titled, “DeAngelo Williams Heckles Jordan Cameron While He Pees” because, well, it’s self-explanatory. Turns out Williams and Dolphins tight end Jordan Cameron are were on a bus trip in Egypt as part of American Football Without Barriers.

Williams seems like a fun guy to go on vacation with.

Salary Capology

The Steelers Wire is breaking down the basics for fans to learn the ins and outs of the salary cap, something that can definitely come into good use this time of year. Simon A. Chester discusses the misconceptions and benefits to contract restructures and the downside to back-loaded deals.

The first misconception about player contract restructures are that the player is somehow giving money back to the franchise or taking a decrease in pay; both of which are not the case.

Next: Steelers Free Agency: Defensive Backs

Restructures happen when a team wants to reduce the salary cap hit for a player so they take part of the base salary owed for the year and convert a portion into a signing bonus prorated over the remaining years of the contract.

The player gets most of their money in a lump sum as opposed to spread out over the course of the season. Also broken down is the situation of back-loaded contracts, using Lawrence Timmons’ deal as an example.