Here we go again with the rumors concerning the Pittsburgh Steelers possibly trading for a big-name wide receiver. You know the names by now, right? Brandon Aiyuk and Tee Higgins are the two wide receivers that the rumors persist about when it comes to the Steelers and a possible trade. Here’s the thing, however. Based on the Steelers’ current salary cap situation, it will be easy to tell if such a trade is on the way.
Currently, the Steelers have just $12,005,998 in available 2024 salary cap space and that’s not enough to accommodate a trade for either Aiyuk or Higgins. Aiyuk, thanks to his fifth-year option being picked up last offseason by the San Francisco 49ers, currently has a 2024 salary cap charge of $14.124 million. As for Higgins, who was given the franchise tag earlier this offseason by the Cincinnati Bengals, his current 2024 salary cap charge is a whopping $21.816 million.
The Steelers would need to accommodate either of those two cap amounts before signing the one they acquire to a contract extension, which would then in turn lower the player’s salary cap charge. Could they pull that off? Sure, they could, and that’s why we would likely see the signs beforehand as a restructuring would likely need to happen before the trade was made official.
As things stand right now, Steelers OLB Alex Highsmith would be the likeliest candidate to have his contract restructured this offseason to free up salary cap space. Such a full restructuring would free up $7.206 million in 2024 salary cap space. Why is Highsmith the likeliest candidate? Because he has the freshest big deal on the books.
Behind Highsmith in the restructuring line would likely be S Minkah Fitzpatrick. A full restructuring of his contract would free up $8,916,667 in 2024 salary cap space. It should be noted, however, that the Steelers restructured Fitzpatrick’s contract last offseason, so they’ll want a good reason to do so again a second consecutive year.
Could the Steelers cut a player to make room for Aiyuk, for example? Sure, but who? S Damontae Kazee, perhaps? Cutting Kazee would make it super close if it were a tit for tat move. ILB Cole Holcomb, possibly? That would do the trick, but just barely. Once again, we would see the signs.
I wrote earlier in the offseason about the plausibility of the Steelers possibly trading for Aiyuk and that was way back when they still had plenty of cap space to accommodate his 2024 number before an extension was to happen. Yes, that plausibility still exists right now, but it’s just a bit messier now than before with available salary cap space being a bit of a hurdle.
Beyond the salary cap space issue, which obviously can be overcome, I think most still forget about what would need to happen after a trade for Aiyuk or Higgins took place. A contract extension and a very lucrative one at that.
Based on all of the contract rumblings that have seemingly surrounded both Aiyuk and Higgins so far this offseason, it’s hard to imagine either settling for an extension with a new money average of less than $25 million. Some argue that both might be angling to equal or better the new money average of Miami Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill, who is currently the highest paid at his position in the NFL at $30 million. Anything more than a $28,002,750 million new money average would make either Aiyuk or Higgins the highest-paid player on the Steelers. Talk about a news story if that happened.
The other thing related to a new contract for either Aiyuk or Higgins post-trade acquisition that is important to consider is the fully guaranteed money aspect. You can bet both players will be looking for fully guaranteed money beyond 2024. Why wouldn’t they be? Either one of them getting full guarantees from the Steelers past 2024 would be yet another huge news story, especially with both not being homegrown products within the organization. Could the Steelers do it? Absolutely, but once again, we’re talking about a…
This article was originally published by a steelersdepot.com . Read the Original article here. .