The Steelers have been a little more active than usual in free agency, signing three potential starters in cornerback Steven Nelson, receiver Donte Moncrief and linebacker Mark Barron.
But, if the signings don't work out, the team also left itself plenty of wiggle room to get out of the deals after the 2019 season.
Realistically, the deals are all for one year, with the Steelers capable of getting out of them after this season at minimal cost to their 2020 cap, showing the team is, indeed, 'going for it," in 2019.
For example, Nelson's three-year contract is worth $25.5 million as a total package. That looks good on paper. But the cornerback counts just $4 million against the cap in 2019. In 2020 and 2021, his cap hit jumps to $10.75 million. That is because his base salary goes from $1.5 million in 2019 to $5.25 million in 2020 and then $8.25 million in 2021. He also has a $3 million roster bonus in 2020.
So if the Steelers decide after the 2019 season Nelson isn't the long-term answer at cornerback, they can release him with a cap hit of $5 million pre-June 1 and save $5.75 million against their cap. The cap hit would account for the remainder of his $7.5-million signing bonus.
The same goes for their other signings, as well, though since they are two-year deals, they are much more straight forward.
Moncrief's two-year, $9-million deal included a $3.5-million signing bonus. He has a $500,000 roster bonus due in 2020.
The speedy receiver's base salary of $1.5 million gives him a very manageable $3.5-million cap hit in 2019. His base salary goes up to $3.5 million in 2020, increasing his cap hit to $5.75 million. But if the Steelers decide to release him, it would cost them just $1.75 million against their cap with $4 million in savings.
Barron signed a two-year, $12-million deal. While the full details have not yet emerged -- agents don't trumpet that information when their clients sign a team-friendly deal -- you can expect it to be similar, with a relatively cheap first year, followed by a much-more expensive second year in which the Steelers have a pretty easy escape.
We know this based on the contract of one of their own re-signed players.
Many looked at the contract given to Anthony Chickillo (two years, $8 million) and said the Steelers overpaid for a backup linebacker and special teams player.
That would be true if the team was paying him $4 million in each of those seasons against its cap. It's not. Chickillo got a $2.195-million signing bonus to go along with an $805,000 salary in 2019. That gives him a cap hit of $1.9 million.
That number jumps to just under $6.1 million in 2020, thanks to a base salary that increases to $4.5 million and a $500,000 roster bonus.
That's potential starter money -- at least low-end for an edge rusher -- so the Steelers are hedging their bets in this case, as is Chickillo.
Bud Dupree is going into the final year of his contract. And it's unlikely the Steelers re-sign him. That could mean the team selects his potential replacement in this year's draft. If it doesn't happen this year, it happens next.
Either way, Chickillo goes into 2020 as the veteran placeholder at the outside linebacker position. But if the younger, cheaper player is better, he could be released at a cap savings of $5 million with a cap hit of just over $1 million.
This is how the Steelers have worked things with a cap situation that, while better than almost any other season since free agency began in 1993, is still on the low end of the spectrum overall in the league.
In fact, after their three outside signings and the re-signings of Chickillo, punter Jordan Berry and guard Ramon Foster, the Steelers had just $7.2 million in remaining cap space.
They created some of that with a restructure of linebacker Vince Williams' contract. Williams had his $2.2-million salary and a $2.9-million roster bonus he was due converted to signing bonus, giving the team an additional $2.9 million in cap space.
The Steelers will need approximately $6 million in cap space to sign their draft picks -- if they use all 10 -- and GM Kevin Colbert likes to go into a season with around $3 million in available cap space to account for injuries.
And in 2020, with Anontio Brown's $21.2-million hit off the books, the Steelers will have an estimated $60 to $80 million available, even with these new signings in place. That will change with a Ben Roethlisberger contract extension, but the Steelers figure to have all kinds of wiggle room in the future.