The Steelers converted $7.925M of DL Stephon Tuitt’s 2021 base salary into a signing bonus, creating $6.34M in 2021 cap space.
Even after the trade for Joe Schobert, Pittsburgh has good cap flexibility to operate throughout the season.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) August 16, 2021
This has been the busiest offseason of the Kevin Colbert era for the Pittsburgh Steelers and things aren’t done yet. NFL reporter Field Yates is reporting that the Steelers and defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt have agreed to restructure his contract, converting $7.925 million of his base salary into a signing bonus.
This gives the Steelers an additional $6.34 million in cap space, bringing their total cap room up over $15 million. Why are the Steelers doing this? The first instinct might be to assume it is connected to a contract extension for linebacker T.J. Watt. Which it might.
But Pittsburgh doesn’t need a ton of cap space for this year to make that contract work. This could be a move intended to give the Steelers some flexibility to make another big trade before the start of the regular season.
