A Quick Way to Create $3.3M More Cap Space

Good morning,

Whew, that’s over. There have been many brutal preseasons around here, but that one ranks near the top and not because the Steelers went 1-4 in that extended exhibition showing.

The games were dreadful and the individual performances ranked right with them. Part of the reason is that the reluctance for coaches to play their first-teamers much was even more so for Mike Tomlin with his offense. There really was no need to play them at all and that showed in the second game when Ben Roethlisberger drove them 80 yards in six plays for a touchdown and then called it a night.

Then on defense, an area in which Tomlin wanted to see more, he could not because so many players had minor injuries and did not play much. Those who replaced them did not play much when they played.

Two players were singled out by Tomlin last night for taking advantage of the final opportunities presented to them. The punters and Roosevelt Nix, or Rosie” as the coach calls him.

Let’s take a look at Nix. You could figure he would be a candidate as a defensive end for the draft after he had 24 sacks at Kent State and made the all-Mid-American Conference four times. But he’s only 5-11 and the NFL quickly dismissed him as a future pro end and the Steelers signed him to play fullback.

Here is a good story on Nix by Ray Fittipaldo in June.

In a short time, Nix made the transition to offense and on Thursday night came up with that big blocked punt, something Tomlin loves. Will they go with him over established veteran fullbback/tight end Will Johnson? I think they might.

With a rookie salary of $435,000, Nix would save the Steelers more than $1.1 million under the salary cap if they keep him over Will Johnson, who was given a one-year contract of $1,542,000 as a restricted free agent in March.

As we found out last week, creating salary cap room has become a priority for the Steelers because of all the injuries they must carry, plus the extra $2.5 million they did not count on going to another kicker.

Nix might not be the only victim to that $1.5 million RFA tender. Two others received them, cornerback Antwon Blake and safety Robert Golden. Are they worth the extra $1 million in salary cap to keep them? Both are excellent special teams players, but the Steelers probably could find some nearly as good in players such as rookies Alden Darby at safety or Kevin Fogg at cornerback. Or maybe they don’t want to have too many youngsters on a defense already overrun by them.

Still, when you’re looking to get money under the cap and you’re not talking about releasing established starters, that’s $3.3 million of cap space the Steelers could create in one swoop today.