What Newly Approved CBA, Salary Cap Means for Steelers

On Sunday, a new salary cap and collective bargaining agreement was established for the NFL. What does the introduction of both mean for the Steelers?

Sunday was an eventful day for the National Football League. 

The NFL Players Association voted by a narrow margin to approve a new collective bargaining agreement, while establishing a new salary cap for the upcoming season and deadline for the franchise tag just hours later. Plans are still holding for the 2020 NFL Draft to occur on schedule, yet recent reports suggest even those plans may be derailed sooner rather than later.

While the distant future remains cloudy for the league amid coronavirus concerns, the immediate future remains unchanged, as the new league year is still scheduled to begin on Wednesday, March 18 at 4 PM (eastern time). 

With the new offseason just days away, how does the recently ratified CBA and new salary cap affect the Steelers and their operations? 

A new CBA is welcome in Pittsburgh

The new CBA is still being heavily debated between players, and with the agreement passing by a mere 60(!) votes, it's natural for discussion to carry over within the following days. While a handful of players celebrated, a plethora of players took to twitter to voice their frustrations similar to Eric Ebron and Darius Leonard.

Man I’m so hot bruh‼️🤬

— Darius Shaquille Leonard (@dsleon45) March 15, 2020

Among the components from the CBA, here is a short list of major changes within the agreement via ESPN's Dan Graziano:

• Playoffs will expand for one team in each conference, effective 2020.
• Potential for regular season to add one regular season game after 2020 (owners choice)
• Players revenue share jumps from 47% to 48% with multiple avenues to earn up to 48.8%.
• Minimum player salaries jump by almost 20%
• Suspensions for positive marijuana tests are eliminated

While players go back and forth, a new CBA is a welcome sign for the Pittsburgh Steelers. 

A new agreement now allows the team financial abilities that would not have been possible under the last year of the old CBA. Teams previously were not able to restructure contracts extending past 2020, which spelled bad news for a Steelers team desperately trying to get under the salary cap. 

Now, general manager Kevin Colbert is free to manipulate the salary cap to his liking, as he seemingly does each offseason. The team could possibly attempt to restructure contracts in the likes of Ben Roethlisberger and Cam Heyward (both popular picks to do-so), who are projected to make nearly $47 million combined in 2020. 

The new CBA also increases game day and practice squad roster sizes. This may have been helpful for the team heading into 2019, as names such as Eli Rogers and Diontae Spencer likely would have remained with the team in some capacity with the additional roster spots.

Additionally, the "thirty percent" rule that existed under the final year of the CBA is now extinct. From the old CBA, it reads "no player contract extending into a season beyond the Final League Year may provide for an annual increase in salary ... of more than 30 percent of the salary provided for in the Final League Year, per year, either in the season after the Final League Year or in any subsequent season covered by the Player Contract."

In a scenario where the Steelers want to extend a player (let's throw a random name out there, Bud Dupree), the team would likely not have been able to get Dupree to agree to a limited increase. Now, if the team is willing, they would be able to meet the likely high salary demands from Dupree. 

When it comes down to CBA agreements/disagreements, it essentially is divided between teams/owners vs the players. While one can argue the players came away from the deal successful, there's no doubting the winners are once again the owners and their respective organizations. The Steelers benefit from a new deal more than their players, especially with teams still being able to utilize things such as the franchise tag.

Salary Cap isn't ideal... this season

When it comes to the 2020 salary cap, the Steelers find themselves in a sticky situation. According to Spotrac's updated figures, Pittsburgh is the only team over the salary cap with a cool $5.4 million they need to have disappear by the first day of the new league year (currently scheduled for Wednesday, March 18). 

With original projections for 2020's salary cap emerging at $200 million, the $198.2 million announced on Sunday was a bit disappointing for the Steelers. While $2 million of $200 million doesn't appear to be significant, every penny counts when you're trying to extend players while also clearing the necessary room for them. 

As mentioned earlier, Kevin Colbert is excellent at turning ramen into fettuccine alfredo. Cuts can (and likely will) be made. Popular cuts include the likes of Ramon Foster, Mark Barron and Anthony Chickillo. While the team is expected to retain Vance McDonald, nothing has been made official yet. 

So, another year, another offseason spent scraping by with minimal money? It appears so. The Steelers will likely make little to no noise in free agency, as all efforts are focused on retaining in-house players. 

Money may become less of an issue in 2021, however. 

Multiple league sources tell @FanSided the NFL salary cap could potentially reach $240 million in 2021.

The 2020 projected cap is $200M and could settle as high as $204M depending on a few factors.

— Matt Verderame (@MattVerderame) February 28, 2020

Of course, that is likely an extremely generous figure. We still need to configure how much revenue will be generated, how big new broadcasting deals will be, any influx of legal sports gambling, things of that nature. 

However, if the cap will spike like NFL Network's Tom Pelissero suggests, there will be plentiful money for the Steelers to utilize in a key offseason where players such as T.J. Watt, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Joe Haden and Cam Heyward are due for extensions/new contracts. 

2020 will force the Steelers to emerge out of dark shadows once again, but if all goes according to plan for the following year, the team should have ample money to secure their young stars for years to come.