Steelers may attempt a contract extension before the start of the 2020 season

The Pittsburgh Steelers are tight against the cap and will need to free up some space before the season. Here’s why they will look to extend someone’s contract.

With the start of the NFL season just days away now, the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to need to free up some cap space. Though they currently sit at $4.7 million in spending money, according to Over the Cap, they need more cap space heading into the season.

After cutting their roster down to 53 players this week (plus two more than can promote to the roster on game day), Pittsburgh will need to sign a grand total of 16 practice squad players – likely costing them in the ballpark of $2 million.

In addition, NFL teams typically like to have money on hand during the sesaon. In the event of an injury to a player, the Steelers need to have the flexibility to go out and sign a veteran player to their roster. This is hard to do when you have just pennies in your pocket.

For these reasons, the Steelers may look to extend one of their players before the start of the season.

Who could the Steelers extend

The Steelers would love to be able to get a player like Cameron Heyward locked up for the remainder of his career. Unfortunately, the two-time All-Pro doesn’t have a whole lot of inventive to sign at this point.

Because Heyward is in a contract year, he could bet on himself having another great season and earn a massive paycheck in free agency next year. However, there’s always a chance he could run into some back luck with a serious injury and miss out on being one of the highest-paid defensive linemen. In addition, if the 31-year-old veteran were to take a step back in his level of play this year, it could affect his contract next offseason.

JuJu Smith-Schuster is another player the Steelers would like to have back, but he has even less incentive to sign now. Still just 23 years old and with a resume padded with production during his rookie contract, JuJu is in of a big payday if Pittsburgh can’t sign him or tag him in the 2021 offseason. With another strong season as Ben Roethlisberger’s favorite target, Smith-Schuster has a chance to become one of the NFL’s highest-paid receivers on a new deal.

A restructure is more likely

Because of this, the most likely option may not be a contract extension, rather, restructuring a player that is already under contract.

David DeCastro is the first player who comes to mind. DeCastro’s cap number is $13.6 million for this season and drops down to $10.4 million in 2021, according to Over the Cap. To free up some space for the 2020 season, Pittsburgh could restructure his numbers and push more money into next year.

The problem with doing this is that the Steelers could end up being well over the cap in 2021, and they would have to get an extension done with DeCastro, as cutting him obviously won’t be an option.

Stephon Tuitt is another veteran who could be restricted. But because he’s already had his cap numbers moved before, he’s currently making $14.9 million over each of the next three seasons – a number the Steelers may not want to push back any further.

Technically, the Steelers could probably get away without making any of these financial moves before the start of the season, but that would really put them on a time crunch to move cap numbers around if someone were to get hurt and they needed to sign a player. Let’s hope they can get something done that doesn’t hurt them in the long run.