The Steelers weren’t expected to have a huge free agency, but the early portion of the new league year has been brutal so far.
Free agency is never an active time for the Steelers, as they opt for the underrated retain your own players and make cheap signings while bolstering through the draft. There was little question that the Steelers would take a similar strategy this year, but it has seemingly been to no avail. Credit where credit is due, the Zach Banner and Cameron Sutton re-signings look good, but the talent that has left will be almost impossible to overcome.
Despite Ben Roethlisberger freeing up cap space for one last ride, this team appears to be rebuilding, not competing. Here are the reasons the Steelers have failed the early portion of free agency.
Where are the deal(s) at?
Again, expectations were relatively low that the Steelers would be big players in free agency. With limited cap space, the team was going to have to do the most with less. That said, they got some surprising extra relief when Roethlisberger took a pay cut in his foe extension. It seemed like Stephon Tuitt would have his contract restructured next, and based on his recent comments, an extension for Steven Nelson could be in the works as well to free up cap space.
Unfortunately, nothing has come to fruition on any of these cap-saving moves, and the Steelers have watched some talent already accept deals elsewhere. Again, the top-level talent was going to leave, but some of the older and cheaper options were realistic re-signs. Had the team done more to create more cap space, some of the recent departures could have been brought back. Now, the team seems void of talent, and these cost-saving measures may go to waste because of it.