Jerricho Cotchery accepted a two-year deal from Carolina on Thursday, spurning an offer to return to the Steelers.
The deal is worth $5 million, with $3.5 million of that front-loaded into the first season, making it an offer the Steelers would have had a tough time matching.
Pittsburgh is currently about $2.5 million under the salary cap.
With Cotchery gone, the Steelers have a combined 8 receptions on the roster among their receivers not named Antonio Brown.
The Steelers hosted veteran wide receiver Lance Moore on Wednesday and were in a holding pattern with him while they waited to see what happened with Cotchery. Now, you can expect the Steelers to begin courting Moore even harder.
@ Team president Art Rooney II said Thursday that the Steelers have been informed by the league that it will not lose a draft pick for the Mike Tomlin sideline infraction last season in Baltimore.
That's not necessarily a surprise, but it is new news.
@ Tomlin was at Notre Dame's pro day today and did some individual workouts with nose tackle Louis Nix III.
That calculated move - Tomlin made sure photographers were there taking his picture with Nix - could be pure smokescreen.
12 comments:
Hey Dale ..
Charlie Batch said earlier this offseason that he wondered indirectly if Todd Haley may have something to do with the amount of offensive turnover the team has had/may still be having.
I don't know if this is a factor at all or to what extent it is, but you would be one to know more about it than some others who keep speculating on this. Personally I think the turnover more of a salary cap vs performance issue.
What are your thoughts?
That's silly.
Carolina offered a deal that was worth $3.5 million in the first season. And Cotchery's wife is from the Charlotte area.
The Steelers didn't want Sanders back. Never made him an offer. The others who have left have been defensive players.
They've re-signed two offensive linemen.
Does the increase the chance of getting a receiver in the first round? Of course rookie receivers rarely make an impact.
Pretty much what I figured - whoever left up to this point was probably going to leave the team regardless of the OC's name - due to age, injury history, performance issues, salary cap implications if retained, etc.
Thanks Dale.
I expect them to make a strong push at a free agent wideout. Moore being on possibility.
I would think a guy such as Miles Austin might also be a possibility.
Hopefully those guys will run the right routes too unlike Sanders.
A healthy Austin would be a nice addition.
I to like the idea of Miles Austin. But I can not understand why the Steelers are not making room under the cap. What are the waiting for? We've got some huge holes to file on the team.
1) It is easier to say you will make room than do it. These things are still negotiations.
2) Why restructure when you don't have to? They could go through to June 1 and get the Woodley money without pushing timmons cap hit into future years (not that I think that's a problem w the cap jumping)
3) They have leverage in negotiations with free agents because they are up against the cap and "can't afford" to spend big money
4) Show me the free agent who we NEED more cap room to sign and who is WORTH that money. Steelers won't throw cash at overrated players even of they had tons of cap space
5) Our high profile FA signing only had a cap hit of what, 2.5mil?
This restructure argument is just a fancy version of "why don't the Steelers buy all the free agents????" It's not a problem. If they need to clear cap space to make a key, value signing, they will.
Two comments:
- I REALLY hope the Steelers don't draft Kelvin Benjamin in the first round. He's a lot older than most of their first round picks over the past 10 years. It's one thing to be the oldest guy on the college football field, but I just don't think he's going to be as good once he's playing against NFL caliber talent.
- Losing Cotchery isn't the end of the world. Despite the fact that the Steelers have lost a few UFAs that fans wanted to keep, those losses will create new opportunities for other players and also likely help provide the Steelers with some comp picks next year.
Any chance Plax will be back to compete for a spot?
No.
Good thing it is a deep draft for receivers.
Post a Comment