There have been some prominent free agents sitting on the market for some time now. Here are four players the Steelers consider signing.
It seems like any day now, we are going to be hearing about some of the last remaining quality free agents being snatched up – quite possibly for pennies on the dollar. Typically, the longer a player sits in the free-agent market, the less money they will receive on their new deal.
We saw this in the past with a high-profile player like Jadeveon Clowney. Though the plan was to sit out and pursue a deal that pushed $20 million per season, the former first overall pick sat in the dwindling market last year and earned a one-year contract of just $13 million.
On a lesser scale, we saw the same thing happen just weeks ago with Ryan Kerrigan. Though Kerrigan has been injured and is past his prime at this point, the former four-time Pro Bowl edge defender earned what was essentially a one-year deal with $2.5 million (with a lower cap number and voidable years attached.
Now, it seems reasonable that the Steelers could suffer from ‘fear of missing out.’ While they certainly took measures to beef up their ailing offense in the 2020 NFL Draft, some positions that lost quality talent have been neglected so far this offseason, and they have a chance to fix that.
The Steelers have roughly $7.4 million in cap space with their rookie class signed, according to Over the Cap. While this doesn’t seem like a lot to work with, there are ways to get around this. Offering a voidable-year contract to a free agent is something they clearly could consider (as they have already structured a number of contracts this way in the offseason). They could also sign a free agent to a multi-year deal and lower the first-year cap hit to keep their 2021 camp number low.
In a closing Super Bowl window, this team needs to make every effort to compete now. Here are four players they should consider signing before another team swoops in: