Great article on our salary cap situation!

[BlackGold4vr]

Long but worth reading! This article leaves no stones unturned talking about all scenarios regarding the 2007 Steelers salary cap options. Anyway here it is:

Summary of Analysis
The Steelers are in a much better cap position than they’ve ever been heading into a new season. At the official start of the season, they will easily be in compliance with the cap even after tendering their exclusive-rights and restricted free agents; this is aided greatly by the retirement of Jeff Hartings.

The rookies are expected to take up about $2 million of their available space, but that will only put a small dent in the Steelers available cap space. Even if the Steelers were to make no other significant roster moves through the entire off-season (other than the no-brainer move of cutting Gardocki), they would have over $3 million of working cap space.

One burning issue in Steeler Nation is the status of Troy Polamalu; from a cap perspective, there are no concerns as it would only take around $1.5 million of additional cap space to extend Polamalu, even to a market value deal on par with Ed Reed. Any other extensions (such as re-upping with Aaron Smith or Alan Faneca) would also be no issue from a cap perspective; in fact, either of these moves would likely create additional cap space this year.

If the Steelers wanted to create additional cap space to play in free agent market, marginal players like Travis Kirschke and Cedrick Wilson could be released to free up significant extra space – nearly $3 million total in the case of those two players.

If they choose, the Steelers could certainly make a play in free agency for players like Daniel Graham, Eric Steinbach, and Napoleon Harris. They could upgrade players like Jerame Tuman, Kendall Simmons, and Clint Kriewaldt to Graham, Steinbach, and Harris, respectively, for less than $1 million in any of those cases.

Bottom line, in 2007, thanks to the new CBA, the Steelers are in great cap position to build a Super Bowl contender and solidify their roster for years to come.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the article.

Here is the link to the longer version!

http://www.burghsportsguys.com/home/...=192&Itemid=51

No doubt a few players like Haggans, Gardocki, Kirschke, Wilson may be cap casualties. I believe we're in good shape for next year!

[BlitzburghRockCity]

That's a great read man, thanks ! I think this is worthy of a sticky.

We are indeed in great shape heading into 2007. We can thank the Rooney's, Colbert & Cowher for setting us up great FA wise over the last few years. Tomlin has the tools in place and good cap space to work with.

Now ladies and gentlemen, the following list is quite scary if you ask me. I am seriously hoping the team takes advantage of this great offseason we have to lock down some of these players ahead of time. The thought of seeing this list go into the last years of their contracts is NOT something I want to see , period !

2008 Free Agents
These players are in the final year of their deal and, as such, the potential exists to sign long-term extensions before the end of the pre-season (their current age is in parentheses):

* CB Ricardo Colclough (24)
* OG Alan Faneca (30)
* LB Clark Haggans (30)
* NT Chris Hoke (30)
* FB Dan Kreider (29)
* S Troy Polamalu (25)
* LB Joey Porter (29)
* DE Aaron Smith (30)

[Black@Gold Forever32]

Its not as bad as you think. The only one that really needs to be locked down is Troy Polamalu. Since he is the one with so much upside. That doesn't mean others on that list should be resigned but Troy is the one that can't get away. Thats if he wants to stay.

Then I would resign Aaron Smith since the Steelers don't have anybody waiting in the wings on the Dline. As for Haggans and Porter. I would only resign one of them. Not both.

As for Dan Kreider. I like Kreider but the Steelers have lost FB's that have just blocked before and have found a replacement.

Its nice to have Hoke for depth but at his age the cap number doesn't make sense for his production.

As for Colclough he has been nothing but a waste.

Pro Sports is a business and even though I like most of those players but from the business part of football it probally would make sense to only resign 2 or 3 guys at the most from that list.

[BlackGold4vr]

At the very least Haggans and Colclough will probably be salary cap hits next year if they even make the roster this year. I expect a couple surprises this year. Surely they will make a couple moves that will surprise us! I don't expect them to retain Porters services next year. We'll see, its all speculation at this point!

[BlitzburghRockCity]

Its not as bad as you think. The only one that really needs to be locked down is Troy Polamalu. Since he is the one with so much upside. That doesn't mean others on that list should be resigned but Troy is the one that can't get away. Thats if he wants to stay.

Then I would resign Aaron Smith since the Steelers don't have anybody waiting in the wings on the Dline. As for Haggans and Porter. I would only resign one of them. Not both.

As for Dan Kreider. I like Kreider but the Steelers have lost FB's that have just blocked before and have found a replacement.

Its nice to have Hoke for depth but at his age the cap number doesn't make sense for his production.

As for Colclough he has been nothing but a waste.

Pro Sports is a business and even though I like most of those players but from the business part of football it probally would make sense to only resign 2 or 3 guys at the most from that list.

Here is how I'd like to see it go down..

* CB Ricardo Colclough (24) - gone
* OG Alan Faneca (30) - must have
* LB Clark Haggans (30) - gone
* NT Chris Hoke (30) - must have, great backup, should be fairly reasonable
* FB Dan Kreider (29) - must have, he and willie work well together.
* S Troy Polamalu (25) - must have, no brainer here.
* LB Joey Porter (29) - must have unless he wants way too much money
* DE Aaron Smith (30) - must have

To me, this list is so important. Troy is a no brainer, we must retain him at all costs. Aaron Smith & Alan Faneca are must have's too, right after Troy is resigned. Dan likes it here, and FB's dont command that much money so I don't see it being much of a problem bringing him back. Chris Hoke will probably be one of the first to resign if offered a deal because he won't cost much.

As far as Porter goes, unless the dude wants an exorbitant amount of money, I say we keep him. He's a vocal leader, a trash talker, a motivator, his teammates respect him and that goes a long way for a team looking for leaders to step up. Hopefully in the draft we'll get some depth and future help at LB.

Players like James Harrison and Arnold Harrison are quality guys who I'd like to see fight for the job opposite Joey in 2007 and then see what happens with our draft picks in the future. I don't want to see our LB's, the strength of our team dwindle down to unproven rookies no matter how high a draft pick they are.