2:27pm: The Steelers have also restructured the contract for safety Mike Mitchell, reports Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (via Twitter). According to Bouchette, the two moves create a total of nearly $6.2MM in cap space, so it sounds like Mitchell’s was a simple restructure as well, converting a portion of his base salary and his entire $2MM roster bonus into a signing bonus. That would reduce his 2015 cap hit by about $2.44MM, creating total cap savings of $6,165,250 when combined with Gilbert’s restructure.
8:16am: Offensive tackle Marcus Gilbert, who signed a five-year, $30MM contract extension with the Steelers last August, has already seen that deal modified, according to Field Yates of ESPN.com (Twitter links), who reports that the team has restructured Gilbert’s contract to free up a little cap space for 2015.
According to Yates, the Steelers have taken Gilbert’s $3.5MM roster bonus, which would have been paid out on the fifth day of the 2015 league year, along with $1.155MM of his $1.9MM base salary, and turned that $4.655MM into a signing bonus. Gilbert will receive that chunk of money immediately, but for cap purposes, it’s prorated over the next five seasons, at a rate of $931K per year.
While the move ensures that Gilbert’s cap hits for 2016 through 2019 all increase by $931K, it reduces his 2015 cap number by $3.724MM, taking it from $6.98MM down to $3.256MM. As Over The Cap’s data shows, the Steelers had been under the projected $143MM cap by less than $1MM prior to reworking Gilbert’s contract. The move should give the team a little breathing room, though I imagine further transactions are coming to create additional flexibility.