Steelers Having Impossible Cap Situation Makes No Sense

One of the most difficult tasks involving running an NFL team as the General Manager is navigating the financial restraints of a salary cap while still having a talented roster. The organizations who do that best, like the New England Patriots, have been able to sustain success for a very long time while, until recently, featuring one of the greatest quarterbacks ever on the roster.

However, some teams in the last couple of seasons have gotten careless in their spending habits, and it has resulted in inflated caps during one of the busiest free agency periods in awhile. The Pittsburgh Steelers are in a financial pickle, and it doesn't make a ton of sense on the surface.

It's excellent that the Steelers front office is restructuring contracts in a way that still pays players what they are worth, while also creating cap room in an impossible situation. But why were the Steelers in this situation in the first place?

Nine players on the roster currently have a dead cap hit of over $5 million, including Ben Roethlisberger, Bud Dupree, Steven Nelson and Stephon Tuitt. A lot of these contracts involved roster bonuses, and that is what is destroying the salary cap right now. So instead of focusing on how to rebuild a roster that just missed out on the playoffs, Steelers GM Kevin Colbert is scrambling to create cap space out of thin air, while holding onto the likes of Dupree via the franchise tag.

Now with the new cap space, they may be able to finally get some help on the offensive side of the ball, as the defense was superb in the second half of the 2019 season. This problem could have been entirely avoided, however, if the Steelers simply were not careless with their money.