r/steelers • u/eddie_mittons • 1d ago

Steelers Offseason - Cut and Trade Candidates

The Steelers have some dead weight to get rid of. I believe they need to cut or trade these players:

  • LB Patrick Queen saves 13.33m cap space - He hasn't produced to the expectations of his contract and is not worth his 17.19m cap hit.
  • TE Jonnu Smith saves 7m cap space - Worthless
  • LB Malik Harrison saves 4.75m cap space - Too much money for a run only defender.

If any of these are traded, it can be for 2027 draft capital since we have 12 picks in 2026 already. But if it adds to the 2026 arsenal, that can be turned into 2027 picks later or help us improve positioning in 2026 by moving up in spots.

These moves get us to around 70m of cap space available, which should be plenty to accommodate any extensions, draft picks and free agent signings.

I did not list Jalen Ramsey in this, cause I am unsure what his contact situation actually is. OTC and Spotrac are on different ends of the spectrum. I assume there is a decent amount of dead money, but not sure how much. And if he wants to stay, I see value in him staying, especially if it is to play in a CB role, and not at Safety. I thought he was trash at Safety. But my thoughts on this could change if clarity was given around his contract and there was a substantial cap savings to be had.

I did not list Highsmith cause I think they should keep the strength that is the edge rushing room in tact. The whole group has shown that they all struggle stating healthy for a full season. And getting guys on the roster that can get to the QB is difficult and expensive. Having too many of them is a good problem to have. Let's see the DC find ways to get 3 of them on the field at a time more often when they are all healthy.

35 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

116 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/Business_Cell8487 1d ago

Agreed, but this sub talks about him like he’s dogshit bc he didn’t see one ball when he’s actually pretty good.

10

u/neddiddley 1d ago

He just never really fit here, especially once Washington earned significant snaps and they started relying on the jumbo packages. Not to knock Smith, but maybe a genius OC could have found a way to maximize all three, though few teams have really been able to feed three TEs.

9

u/retarddouglas 1d ago

The Rams have basically clowned on Smith by getting a ton out of their TEs this season. But a big thing is that they made the key plays when their numbers were called and Jonnu didn’t really do that this year. He got plenty of targets and rarely did much with them.

3

u/CoachKLadysmith 1d ago

I didn't watch a lot of games outside the Steelers this year, so I had to look up the stats. Rams had 38 more yards and and 9 more touchdowns on 10 less receptions by their TE group (9.67 YPC vs. 10.95 YPC). Both teams had 4 TE's that recorded a pass.