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Many veterans jobs on the line as Pittsburgh Steelers aim to cut personnel expense for 2012 – NFL News

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Many veterans jobs on the line as Pittsburgh Steelers aim to cut personnel expense for 2012 – NFL News
Pittsburgh Steelers may be aiming to revise contracts with some of its veteran players, or in a worst case scenario, waive them off their pay roster, to control its personnel expense when the team meets on Monday, January 16, 2012.
In their last game in the first playoff round, which was their first wild-card tie in the American Football Conference (AFC) North division, Steelers lost to the Denver Broncos, 23-29.
It is for the first time that the team management, including the coaching staff, will be meeting in the postseason, and the discussion on the agenda is expected to dominate their financial affairs and the players' deals.
Despite veterans being the key to their wins in the regular season, playoff and Super Bowl event, Steelers can't ignore that they are consuming most of its personnel budget and hence, can be the main target in the reshuffling.
The team is currently spending $20 to $25 million more than the players' salary-cap(s) for 2012.
Its salary expense stands at $140 million. An amount of $125 million out of this is taken away by the top 51 players alone, while rest of the expense is other players' salaries.
The Steelers have an 80-man extended squad on its offseason roster, and is looking to reshuffle and most probably cut it down to keep its wages in line with its maximum cap, somewhere around $120 million.
However, Steelers' coach, Mike Tomlin has played down the hype, saying there have always been changes in the side. He did not disclose the length of the changes being made this year though.
"There's always going to be changes," Tomlin said.
"There are changes every year. I am not going to sit here and pretend like there's not going to be changes. To what extent, at this point, I am not ready to address."
Some analysts, however insist that the Steelers must be looking to do something with their over expense in the personnel department.
Most importantly, they cannot afford to keep paying higher amounts to veterans, while coming hard on the draft and irregular signees.
"It's bad," the salary cap guru at Steelers Depot, Dave Bryan, said.
"They are going to have to cut established guys, and the situation they are in now, even a guy a like James Harrison has to be brought into the equation, although unlikely. This team has no choice but to make some very tough decisions."
Some of the veterans likely to come under the Steelers' hammer include Arnaz Battle, Larry Foote, Aaron Smith, Will Allen, Casey Hampton, Jonathan Scott, and maybe the daring linebacker, James Harrison.
With nothing final yet, the team is meeting for the last time this season, the 2011 regular season of the National Football League (NFL). Next time they are expected to be together will be the start of next season, in May of this year.

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