Steelers have $47 million in cap space tied to players who won’t be playing
By Tommy Jaggi
The Steelers are using a good portion of their cap on players who will not be suiting up for their team this year. Here’s how that will affect them.
The Pittsburgh Steelers made some financial decisions recently that could really come back to bite them. Though they couldn’t foresee Ben Roethlisberger’s devastating injury coming their way, Pittsburgh could be in a bit of a pickle financially.
According to Mark Kaboly of The Athletic, the Steelers now have $47 million tied into players who will not be suiting up for their team this year:
Steelers have $47 million of cap space tied up with two players who won't play a down/another down for them this year. Hard to compete when you have those numbers.
— Mark Kaboly (@MarkKaboly) September 16, 2019
Kaboly makes the point that it is hard to compete when you have this much money tied to players who won’t be on the field for their team this season.
Obviously, the two players he is referring to are Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown.
Pittsburgh recently gave Big Ben a $91 million contract extension that locks him up through the 2021 season. However, it’s unclear at this point if and when Ben will return to the football field.
The former two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback has been ruled out for the remainder of the 2019 season, and his football career is very much in doubt.
Unfortunately for the Steelers, Ben’s recent contract extension makes him the 2nd highest-paid quarterback in the league, in terms of yearly value. If it was ever in question before, they certainly won’t get their money’s worth out of that deal.
Antonio Brown’s contract was even worse. Not only do Steelers fans have to suffer through seeing the head-case wide receiver in a Patriots uniform, but he is costing Pittsburgh $21 million in dead cap from the most recent deal he signed with the Steelers.
Pittsburgh has just $3.175 million in cap space as it is, so it won’t be easy to go out and find pieces that could potentially help salvage their 2019 season.
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It has been a rough two weeks for Steelers fans, and the Ben Roethlisberger news is just icing on the cake. Pittsburgh has a great franchise, but hopes of this team being competitive in 2019 are quickly dwindling.