Pittsburgh Steelers look to consolidate players’ salary expense, release couple of players – NFL News
The Pittsburgh Steelers have finally launched their much awaited and inevitable financial austerity measures, aiming to seek savings of around $20 to $30 million they are spending above their players' salary caps, annually.
To start with, the team management announced to have released their wide receiver, Arnaz Battle, and cornerback, Bryant McFadden.
The move is expected to bring about savings of about $3.5 million annually, which despite being not enough to sort out their financial problems, is seen as a right step towards the intended direction.
Both players were active on Steelers’ roster during the 2011 National Football League (NFL) regular season and overall have played for the team for more than one season.
Their departure was seen inevitable in the face of their team's intentions of slashing their overspending on the head of players’ salaries, more than their cap of around $120 million per annum.
Steelers’ current amount of spending on players’ salaries averages around $145 million per annum, and the team management, soon after ending past season’s NFL run, hinted at consolidating their expenses, with a clear aim of seeking to save on the players’
wages.
In one of his remarks, their coach, Mike Tomlin, had defended the planned hiring firing drive, saying all the overhauling of their squad would be need-based and that the team management would not go for a rash cleansing.
He had claimed that measures were aimed at creating some room for savings and bringing about a depth in squad by signing back some of their players off free agency.
The coach had ruled out fears of many players, who in the wake of his statement and the team management’s obvious motives, saw their future at Steelers on the line.
It is being widely expected that overall the austerity drive might be focusing some of the veterans who have been with the team since quite long and are on financially more healthy terms.
Any move to renegotiate their deal's terms or letting them go altogether will certainly result in a substantial amount of savings for the team.
Again, the team will definitely be looking to maintain a talented squad and not to compromise on the quality factor while seeking to cut players' salary expense.
The issue of quality becomes even more important for them, in view of their shaky performance last season.
The Pittsburgh Steelers ended their past season run in the wild card phase of the league, after they lost their last game to the Denver Broncos.
They had also earlier missed the chance of finishing atop the American Football Conference (AFC) North division and winning the division title due to the tiebreak advantage, which went to their divisional rivals, Baltimore Ravens, who overpowered them twice
in the regular season.
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