2024 Free Agency

[madinsomniac]

Starts wed March 13th.
That is also the day that teams must be under the top 51 offseason cap.

The Steelers are currently 766,000 over the cap, however that is deceiving.
Unlike all the other teams they only have 2 priority free agents. Levi Wallace at CB... he is expected to make around six million bucks, but the team could try for a CB improvement at the position.
And the backup QB position... which could be filled by UFA Mason rudolph

The other UFAs of note:
Montravias Adams, whose role is minimized due to Benton
Chandon Sullivan, a slot corner in an abundant slot corner market.
Marcus Golden, a backup edge
Kwon Alexander, the third Ilb coming off of injury
Miles Killibrew. Special teams ace
Miles Boykin. The other Miles special teams ace.
James Pierre, a special teams guy and outside cb backup
Armon Watts, a NT on a team that hates them.
Elijah Riley..
Blake Martinez
Mikal Walker
Randel Wren
Chappelle Russell

No one on this list probably tops 2 million dollars... if they did it would be by a couple hundred K. Most are league minimum guys.

Because we have 64 guys under contract already ( second most in the league) the cap already is factoring in league minimum for the 51 spots signing most will not affect or barely affect the cap.. the 51st contract on our roster makes 915k... so if we sign a guy to a 1,915,000 contract, it would only bump our cap hit up one million.. since the 915k is already accounted for..

Currently the C position would be filled by Herbig. And upgrade would be noce, but it isnt a true hole.

Punter is, however unless they intend to go for the KC castoff, one of those are extremely cheap


Note also that tge steelers havent restructured or cut anyone not due a roster bonus yet... they are clearly keeping their options open.
Restructuring cam, and cutting or restructuring peterson and Robinson can open up tons of space

( i want to note that Peterson has a 3 million dollar Roster bonus, though i am not sure if it is the March 13th one or the later one. In any case, they played him like 97% of plays last year.. highest on the team by a lot.. he probably is going nowhere.. though they may try to restructure him)

 

[madinsomniac]

As for the available UFAs, I fully expect us to bring in a middle tier backup QB and a single high end UFA... I think it could be a CB.. though C or DL arent out of the question. A lot depends on who gets tagged before free agency starts..
most of the prime targets are coming from teams with oodles of cap space, like Chicago...
lots of talk about bringing in an ILB, but I think if Holcolmb is fine they wont do that...

Its also reasonable to think they target a vet slot guy like Boyd if they fully move on from Robinson.

 

[slashsteel]

Starts wed March 13th.
That is also the day that teams must be under the top 51 offseason cap.

The Steelers are currently 766,000 over the cap, however that is deceiving.
Unlike all the other teams they only have 2 priority free agents. Levi Wallace at CB... he is expected to make around six million bucks, but the team could try for a CB improvement at the position.
And the backup QB position... which could be filled by UFA Mason rudolph

The other UFAs of note:
Montravias Adams, whose role is minimized due to Benton
Chandon Sullivan, a slot corner in an abundant slot corner market.
Marcus Golden, a backup edge
Kwon Alexander, the third Ilb coming off of injury
Miles Killibrew. Special teams ace
Miles Boykin. The other Miles special teams ace.
James Pierre, a special teams guy and outside cb backup
Armon Watts, a NT on a team that hates them.
Elijah Riley..
Blake Martinez
Mikal Walker
Randel Wren
Chappelle Russell

No one on this list probably tops 2 million dollars... if they did it would be by a couple hundred K. Most are league minimum guys.

Because we have 64 guys under contract already ( second most in the league) the cap already is factoring in league minimum for the 51 spots signing most will not affect or barely affect the cap.. the 51st contract on our roster makes 915k... so if we sign a guy to a 1,915,000 contract, it would only bump our cap hit up one million.. since the 915k is already accounted for..

Currently the C position would be filled by Herbig. And upgrade would be noce, but it isnt a true hole.

Punter is, however unless they intend to go for the KC castoff, one of those are extremely cheap


Note also that tge steelers havent restructured or cut anyone not due a roster bonus yet... they are clearly keeping their options open.
Restructuring cam, and cutting or restructuring peterson and Robinson can open up tons of space

( i want to note that Peterson has a 3 million dollar Roster bonus, though i am not sure if it is the March 13th one or the later one. In any case, they played him like 97% of plays last year.. highest on the team by a lot.. he probably is going nowhere.. though they may try to restructure him)

Where do you get that they are over the cap? Most reputable sources I have seen says they are now under. Regardless they have many of ways to free up money so they can't use that as an excuse for just about anything minus perhaps what a contract would cost for Cousins...

 

[madinsomniac]

Where do you get that they are over the cap? Most reputable sources I have seen says they are now under. Regardless they have many of ways to free up money so they can't use that as an excuse for just about anything minus perhaps what a contract would cost for Cousins...

Im getting my numbers from sportrac. They are usually on the ball. I think they account for draft pick slots, but im not certain.

Cousins is likely out of our price range. He is expected to get low to mid end starter money.. probably closer to twenty per than ten per... maybe more

Edit: yes sportrac has the draft pick pool calculated in. Over the cap, which doesnt account for it has them at 8.9 under and the draft pool is expected to cost them a bit over 9 for their current picks

 

[madinsomniac]

Also some of the forecasting sites have cousins making as much as 40 million per year. I dont think he gets that, but who knows

 

[SteelerFan448]

My top pick would be Kirk Cousins. I want a QB who can make this team compete not just to squeak into the playoffs as the 7th seed with some help down the stretch, but legitimately earn a playoff spot and have a chance to win a playoff game.

Jordan Whitehead - I wanted the Steelers to sign him last year and hope the same this season. He'd be a great fit for this defense and to pair with Fitzpatrick.