Typically as the Pittsburgh Steelers head into any offseason, it is tricky for Steelers’ general manager Kevin Colbert to free up cap space to sign free agents and that year’s draft picks.
Colbert made a move on Wednesday to free up some cash by restricting the contract of offensive tackle Marcus Gilbert.
Gilbert, who just signed a new deal prior to last season, had his contract reworked to create $3.724 million in cap space.
The team turned a $3.5 million roster bonus and $1.15 million of Gilbert’s salary into a signing bonus to free up the cap space.
That will help in the short term as the team will just have to deal with that salary cap hit down the road.
This should also help in the short term to get a mega-deal done with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who once signed should free up even more cap space for the upcoming season.
Gilbert has 46 career starts at right tackle through his first four seasons in the NFL.
When healthy Gilbert’s performance has been up and down as he still struggles with some outside pass rushers and many around the team believe that Mike Adams is a superior run blocker.
There aren’t many candidates left for the Steelers in terms of restructuring deals this offseason, but one possibility could be wide receiver Antonio Brown.
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