The Steelers are in a tough salary cap spot but there is a need for a shake up this offseason. The most obvious way to go about doing that is to try and shed some big cap numbers but really the Steelers find themselves in a position where there is essentially no way to do that without completely gutting a part of the team.
Only 8 players have a cap number greater than 3 million headed into next season. The guy with the biggest number is Ben Roethlisberger. You can't get rid of a franchise quarterback as he is the piece you retool around. Also in this group of 8 are his two best weapons, Antonio Brown and Heath Miller. Again you can not take the best weapons out of this offense.
On the defensive side of the ball Woodley comes with the biggest cap hit and while he is in theory a player the Steelers could be in a position to let go releasing him actually causes a bigger cap hit than keeping him. Timmons who has the third highest cap hit on the team is in a similar position to Woodley. I'm not quite certain if cutting him causes a bigger hit against the cap than keeping him but it is close enough that the savings wouldn't be worth doing so. Two other players taking up large chunks of cap room are Ike Taylor and Troy Polamalu. Coming into this season those two seemed like possible cap casualties but both seem revived and our key pieces of the secondary. Removing either or both of them likely cripples that unit.
All that leaves us with is the lowest of the 8 in Maurkice Pouncey. With his injury history it at least has to be considered but given the volatile nature of the Steelers offensive line removing him from the equation seems highly unlikely.
Outside of those 8 players there appear to be a lot of disposable pieces but none of them are really going to have much of an impact on the cap situation. The Steelers need to retool this team and start diverting cap space away from their increasingly aging core but removing any of the 8 players who are receiving the big money likely marks the start of a rebuild not a retool. This team is not as bad off from a talent stand point as it may seem. Sure they could use another playmaker on offense and an heir apparent to the aging Taylor and Polamalu. What they do lack though is the financial flexibility to start making the core of this team younger. The question is how do you gain that while not completely tearing down a team with some good talent.
To me this doesn't seem possible. This upcoming offseason the Steelers are going have to choose between doing a complete rebuild or taking another shot with a team that is close but not quite good enough. You don't want to blow up something that isn't bad but then again you don't want to go into next season with a team destined for another mediocre finish. Thoughts on where you think the Steelers should go from here?