Looking Forward to the 2021 AFC North

Now that all of the AFCN teams are done for the year, it's that time to start jawing about next year.

As you may or may not be aware, the Salary Cap for 2021 is expected to be around $20M lower due to lost revenues from Covid-19. Using data from Overthecap.com, this is how the teams in the AFCN stand with a Base Cap number of $176M (as of this moment):

• PIT: $21M OVER the cap with 35 players currently under contract.
• BAL: $26M UNDER the cap with 41 players currently under contract.
• CLE: $24M UNDER the cap with 47 players currently under contract.
• CIN: $35M UNDER the cap with 50 players currently under contract.

It's going to be very interesting to see how these front offices navigate this off season.

 

It's going to be very interesting to see how these front offices navigate this off season.


Pitt has the toughest job........great info Lyman.

 

In tough times find somone else in even a tougher spot. The saints are projected to be over around 93 million

 

Ive seen a few reports suggesting the cap will be around 190 million. Somcrosssing fingers for that.

 

Ya, I saw that. When you kick the can down the road as often as for as long as they have, sooner or later the cap will kick your ass.

 

Which is why the steelers need to cut Ben rather than signs him to another contract pushing money back again. Make like frozen and let it go.

 

Cutting Ben only saves you $19M in cap as he still has over $22M in dead money left on his contract. That still leaves you $2M OVER the cap before you attempt to resign any of your UFA's or pay your draft class.

Colbert will definitely earn his paycheck this off season.

 

Browns: 13-3
Bengals: 10-6
Ravens: 9-7
Steelers: 7-9

 

If you've got any cornerbacks you'd like to cut to save space, we'd appreciate it.

PS: You can keep Haden.

 

This is going to be more on the speculative side until we know the actual salary cap but the Steelers won't do the first thing I'd do... force Ben into retirement. Others who should come off the books:

Cut Vance McDonald - savings 5.2M
Cut Eric Ebron - savings 6M
Cut Joe Haden - savings 7M
Pouncey retire - savings 8M
Ben retire - savings 19M

In-House Free Agents

Tag Bud Dupree and hopefully work out a long term deal - call it 12M first year cap charge
Sign Cam Sutton - comp Kendall Fuller 4yrs, 40M - first year cap charge 4.1M
Sign Mike Hilton - comp Kenny Moore 4yrs, 33M - first year cap charge 3M
Sign Zach Banner - tough comp but can't be talking a ton of money
Re-sign Jerald Hawkins as swing tackle - not a ton of money
Re-sign Tyson Alualu - vet minimum

Sign a blocking tight end, some o-line depth, play great defense and then it's up to the draft.

You guys can kick all the dirt on this team you like but it would be pretty foolish. They are too good at finding talent.

 

Cam Sutton and Mike Hilton are both free agents.

 

They need to do whatever they need to do to stay competitive. They have much more room in 2022 - although not as much as everyone thinks. That doesn't include 5th year options for T.J. Watt, Minkah and Edmunds.

 

Who's kicking dirt? I am very confident that the Steelers will field a very competitive team in 2021. And I agree that Colbert and his staff are very good at what they do. (I thought his trade of a 1st Rd pick for Fitzpatrick was brilliant!)

 

It's been a theme in other threads. No big deal. Just saying they still have a lot of talent and they've done a really good job later in the draft and from the UFA pile.

 

I'm listening...

They any good?

 

Still want y'all algorithm for finding wide receivers in the draft.

Sticking you at 7-9 has a lot less to do with you slipping than the rest of the AFC North catching up. Can't go 4-0 against Ohio teams forever, you know.

 

Also, Mason "Dixon-Line" Rudolph is like... the eighth-best QB in the AFC North today. I expect you to find a free agent if/when Ben does the decent thing and steps down. Hopefully, he won't drag you through a full offsesaon and draft before deciding to hang it up.

 

Official rankings:

1. Baker Mayfield, CLE
2. Joe Burrow, CIN
3. Jarvis Landry, CLE
4. Case Keenum, CLE
5. Robert Griffin III, BAL
6. Ryan Finley, CIN
7. Ben Roethlisberger, PIT
8. Mason "Dixon-Line" Rudolph, PIT

Honorable Mention:

WR - Odell Beckham Jr., CLE
RB - Lamar Jackson, BAL

 

I want to say go screw yourself, but the Jackson rating is priceless. He holds the ball like a loaf of bread and is accurate about 50% of the time