NFL free agency technically starts this upcoming Wednesday, but many deals will be struck before then. The legal tampering period, when clubs can start negotiating with outside free agents, will begin on Monday. That should bring a lot of interesting updates as players look to find their new homes on the open market.
The Steelers have a lot of work to accomplish between now and when free agency officially begins. They have a good chunk of quality pending free agents that they would like to sign and potentially open cap space by changing around some other existing contracts. A lot of work is left to be done for this front office before they turn their attention to any outside free agents this upcoming week.
Steelers make some savings by releasing some of their own before free agency starts
There is basically zero cap space for the black and gold to work with at their current state of business. Cutting some contracts to open the door for future spending might be the best course of action for now and into the future. They announce the contract terminations of Ahkello Witherspoon, William Jackson III, Myles Jack, Gunner Olszewski, and Miles Killebrew. All of them have higher cap hits that are not needed to carry on with this club.
Another accomplishment to open more cap space is reworking Cam Heyward's current deal to add another seven million dollars in spending change. According to overthecap.com, these moves will allow the Steelers to have a little under 35 million in cap space to spend this offseason. This would be a task to get to, but it is not something completely imaginary as all these players, besides Heyward, are expendable.