The Steelers may be in a bad way financially, but here are five contracts we can feel good about heading into the 2021 season.
I hate to be a downer when the Steelers had a record 11-0 start to their 2020 season, but things aren’t looking so good as we look ahead to the 2021 offseason. Pittsburgh is in a terrible situation financially. According to Over the Cap, they will have only have 35 players under contract and are projected to be over $21 million in the hole.
Fortunately, there are a few things they could do to get back into positive money rather quickly and several players appear to be easy cuts in the offseason. While spending will be very tight next year as the Steelers look to fill their roster back out again, we can take at least some level of comfort knowing that Pittsburgh does have some good contracts on their team. Here are five contracts Steelers fans should feel great about heading into 2021:
DL Stephon Tuitt
Despite his dominant play over the last two seasons, Stephon Tuitt comes at a very reasonable price tag – even after backloading his deal. Originally, man fans and analysts thought the Steelers overpaid for the big defensive lineman, but that doesn’t seem to be the case at all right now.
While Tuitt has had trouble consistently staying on the field throughout his career, he has been very healthy this year (with the exception of missing one game after landing on the Reserve/COVID list). However, what makes him a bargain right now is the going rate of high-quality interior defenders. Chris Jones and DeForest Buckner are getting paid at least $20 million per season, while players like Kawaan Short and Geno Atkins are getting over $16 million per season. At $12 million per year, Stephon Tuitt has one of the better contracts for an interior defender in all of football.