QB Big Ben, linebacker James Harrison agree to deal redoing to help Pittsburgh Steelers on salary cap – NFL News
With the Pittsburgh Steelers very much serious about bringing down their expense on the players’ salaries, their austerity drive is likely to include more highly paid players in the team’s redoing of their deals.
As of the latest, the names of the quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger and linebacker, James Harrison, have emerged to be potential targets of the team’s deals restructuring, which is aimed to cut their salary expense somewhere closer to its cap level of about
$120 million a year.
Steelers’ head coach, Mike Tomlin, had earlier hinted at the possibility of release of some of their players while renegotiation of the deals of some highly paid players to help them cut their overspend of about $22 million on the salaries head.
A week earlier, the team announced to have cut their cornerback, Bryant McFadden, expecting a saving of about $3.5 million a year from it.
Their wide receiver, Hines Ward, was feared to be in the line next. The player has reacted strongly to the reports on the possibility of his departure, saying he was willing to get his deal redone by his team to enable him to finish his career at the Pittsburgh.
Now some reports have pointed out at the possibility of restructuring of deal of the quarterback, Big Ben, who is among the top few players who are on an expensive contract with the team.
The agent of the player while commenting on the reports of such a possibility offered his consent on behalf of his client to renegotiate deal with the team management.
Those reports have emerged in the face of comments from the team’s general manager, Kevin Colbert, who said that the salary cap was a serious issue for his side and that they were looking into the possibilities of cutting down the expense.
His comments had come in line with the fears expressed by Hines Ward, who in the wake of an atmosphere uncertainty prevalent at the team’s headquarters foresaw his release to be an imminent choice for his team, in order to help them save another $4 billion
a year.
Ward has two more years left in his deal with Steelers and he is due to be paid $8 million over the stipulated period before his deal runs out.
Following his offer to get his deal restructured to be able to play football at the Pittsburgh for more seasons to come and finish his career there, Steelers GM denied they have already made their mind about the player.
The GM insisted then that the overspend was a serious issue indeed and they were definitely looking at how to keep it down.
Now, Big Ben, is in the same fears and his agent has already offered the player’s willingness to get restructured his deal terms, which most likely to affect his pay scale, and he should be ready to work with lesser amount of incentives.
A similar offer has come from the agent of linebacker, James Harrison. He said that his client is eager to accept a new deal from the team management. Both players are on a chance of renewal of their deals carrying new terms and conditions.
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