There are three members of the Pittsburgh Steelers who have not been playing up to the pay checks they are set to earn in 2019 and beyond.
The Pittsburgh Steelers stand to be a competitive team in 2019, but there are are three players who aren’t worth their weight in gold. While sometimes the Steelers catch a break and get a team friendly deal on the players they sign, often times it goes the other direction.
With only so much salary cap space to spread around, great money management is an important job of an NFL front office. Here are the 3 worst contracts currently on the Pittsburgh Steelers:
Chris Boswell
What a disappointment Chris Boswell has been for the Steelers. After signing an extension that made him a top five paid kicker in the NFL, Boswell fell off the deep end – kicking 65 percent for the Steelers last season.
The year prior, Boswell made the Pro Bowl after nailing 35 of 38 kicks. However, with his play reaching the level of potentially being cut, Boswell certainly isn’t worth his nearly $20M contract he signed in 2018.
To cut ties with Boswell would mean the Steelers would have to eat $6.8M in dead money this year, and it would cost them an additional $2.6M in cap space.
Stephon Tuitt
I really like Stephon Tuitt, but it is certainly hard to justify his $13.6M cap hit over each of the next three seasons, as I stated in a previous article. Tuitt is a solid piece of the defense for the Steelers and Pittsburgh often feels the effects when he’s not on the field.
However, Tuitt hasn’t gained more than 6.5 sacks in a season (and that came all the way back in 2015). I know 5-techniques aren’t known for their numbers on the box score, but Tuitt being the 3rd highest paid player on the team is a little rich for my blood.
Mark Barron
This is a contract I really don’t understand. Mark Barron has been okay (at best) for the Rams, and Pro Football Focus ranked him as the 76th linebacker with a grade of 54.0.
Barron really hasn’t been very good in a few years now, but that didn’t stop the Steelers from throwing $12M at him over the next two seasons. What’s worse is that Barron’s dead cap hit would be $5.75M this year. If the Steelers tried to cut him, Pittsburgh would lose nearly $2M more in the process.
Barron’s cap number jumps all the way up to $8.1M in 2020, which as it stands, would make their rotational linebacker the 8th highest paid player on the team.