Should Steelers free up more cap space to trade for OT Morgan Moses?

The Steelers don’t have a lot of cap space to work with, but perhaps it would be worth it to try to trade for an offensive tackle like Morgan Moses. 

Because of the pandemic, the Steelers were in one of the worst salary cap situations in the league at the start of the offseason. Years of restructuring and backloading the contracts of their veterans finally caught up with them, and Pittsburgh was forced to let a number of quality football players go this offseason.

Among the most notable to walk were Bud Dupree, Alejandro Villanueva, Matt Feiler, and Mike Hilton. In addition, the Steelers were forced to cut Steven Nelson and Vince Williams to clear additional cap space, though the latter rejoined the team on a minimum deal.

Fortunately, Pittsburgh had nine draft choices this offseason, and they did a solid job adding depth to some of their biggest positions of need. In the fourth round, the team added Texas A&M offensive tackle Dan Moore Jr., but he probably won’t see the field much as a rookie. In a closing Super Bowl window, this is a position that could still use an immediate upgrade.

Zach Banner was re-signed to a two-year extension this offseason and is projected to start at right tackle. However, he is coming off a torn ACL and has just two games of starting experience in the NFL by the age of 27. Chukwuma Okorafor is currently slated to kick over to left tackle to replace Villanueva in 2021, but the former third-round draft choice really struggled at right tackle in 2020.

Recently, Ian Rapaport of NFL Network reported that the Washington Football Team is likely moving on from long-time starting offensive tackle, Morgan Moses and that he could be available for trade very soon. Should the Steelers give him a call?

Moses makes a ton of sense for Steelers

When I first heard that Morgan Moses was going to be up for grabs, I was a bit surprised. Though Moses is a very solid football player, Washington also has another quality tackle in Cornelius Lucas and they got Ereck Flowers back – a player who can wear multiple hats for them. In addition, The Football Team drafted star Texas offensive tackle Samuel Cosmi this offseason.

While it’s a questionable decision to look to trade him, Washington believes that their other pieces help make Moses expendable. Their willingness to part with a top-flight NFL tackle should have the Steelers interested.

Though he just turned 30 years old, Moses has a lot left in the tank and he’s never missed a game since becoming a starter in 2015. In addition, he’s signed to a very reasonable contract through the 2022 NFL season. Moses graded out as the 6th-best right tackle in the NFL last year, via Pro Football Focus, and his 80.6 overall grade was the highest of his career so far. This isn’t out of the norm, however, as Moses has earned very respectable grades since his second season in the league in 2015.

Getting the cap space to work is an issue

Still, making the cap space work is another matter entirely. Though I have no doubts that Moses is worth his $7.75 million cap number this year, the Steelers have just $9.4 million in cap space, according to Over the Cap. That number drops all the way down to $6.5 million after roster displacement.

The fact of the matter is that Pittsburgh would need to free up more money in order to execute this trade, as they still need to sign the rest of their rookie draft class and they need $4-6 million left over for in-season moves in the event of injuries. In order to do this, it would likely require them to give yet another player a voidable year extension or to lock up a player like David DeCastro to a long-term deal – lowering his $14.3 million cap hit in 2021.

In all honestly, this is a trade that is very unlikely to get done, and there will be plenty of other teams who will aggressively pursue Morgan Moses via trade. However, I have my doubts about the Steelers offensive tackle situation in 2021, and Moses would clearly be an upgrade over what they have. In a year that could be Pittsburgh last in a closing Super Bowl window, perhaps they should see if they can make this work.