Christian Westerman

[BengalFanInNJ]

(01-18-2017, 02:48 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Here are the top 10 cap space occupants on the Steelers in 2016:
Roethlisberger, QB - $24 mill
Timmons, ILB - $15 mill
Brown, WR - $11.8 mill
Pouncey, C - $10.5 mill
DeCastro, RG - $5.2 mill
Gilbert, RT - $4 mill
Mitchell, DB - $4 mill
Moats, OLB - $3 mill
Jones, OLB - $2.7 mill
Shazier, ILB - $2.5 mill
http://overthecap.com/salary-cap/pittsburgh-steelers/

Notice that their top 2 OL make about a combined $16 mill, but their highest OT only makes $4 mill. Their LT, Villanueva, only costs $525k against the cap. He's been a steal for them.
Ramon Foster, their LG, only costs $2.4 mill. Total cost for their OL is about $23 mill. It's also worth noting that Bell and DeAngelo Williams combined were cheaper than Bernard.

The Bengals also have their top two OL making about $16 mill (Whitworth and Zeitler both at $8 mill). Boling counted $4.7 mill against the cap (about the same as Gilbert for PIT). Ogbuehi counted $2 mill against the cap, and Bodine counted $714k against the cap. Total cost for Bengals top 5 OL is about $23.5 mill.

The bottom line though is that even the Steelers can only afford to pay high prices for two OL. It just happens their top two OL are C and RG, whereas most teams pay a ton for an OT.

For 2017, the Steelers are paying Pouncey, DeCastro, Foster, and Gilbert a total of about $33 mill. Villanueva becomes a FA after the 2016 postseason. Le'Veon Bell also becomes a FA. They likely will, once again, have to play doctor with restructuring or deals or cut some players because they can't afford to pay that entire OL plus Brown, Bell, and Ben. If they do, their defense will greatly suffer.

So it seems like the good strategy is to pay two OL very well ($15-20 mill combined), the third around $4-5 mill, and the remaining OL should all be lower than $3 mill each. The Bengals can still accomplish that if they re-sign Whit and Zeitler, as Boling still falls in that $4-5 mill range. The Bengals just need better performance out of their cheaper players like the Steelers got this past year.

Is it me, or does it seem like they may be in big trouble with the cap next year? They have 39 players signed for 2017 and still only $42m under the cap  with a big payday owed to Bell.