Steelreign : Steelers Reside in Salary Cap Hell and Its Time to Move Out.

It's hard to argue the success of a team that has won 6 Super Bowls and has more wins than any franchise since 1970. It's also easy for fans to take for granted that this success is going to continue, it becomes expected and an 8-8 season is looked upon as a complete failure, the kind of failure they'd love to have in Cleveland. The success that the Steelers have enjoyed since 2005 has come at a price however, it has put them in salary cap hell.
For the last several years, in order to keep their roster in tact for the purpose of winning another Super Bowl title, they have made it a regular practice of restructuring the bigger contracts on the team which is in essence a year to year gamble they hope pays off with a seventh Lombard, but instead has them backed up against the salary cap and making it hard to keep younger players who are critical to the future success of our Steelers. So far this offseason the Steelers have restructured the deals of Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and Lawrence Timmons just to get under the salary cap and of course these players don't mind because though their salary has been "reduced" this season, they are getting most of it up front in the form of a bonus check, which the cap hit for, is spread out over the remaining years of the deal. It's a cycle that the Steelers need to break because those older players they have been gambling on are too old to get it done and may make it impossible to resign guys like Keenan Lewis and for sure Mike Wallace.
It is time for the Steelers to let go of guys like Brett Keisel, Ike Taylor, James Harrison, Ryan Clark and Maybe even Troy. Their best days are all behind them and the fact that they are still around just might cause the Steelers to have to let Lewis, Wallace and younger talent walk because of cap constraints that keep them from being able to pay those that could actually help them win.
The Steelers are a loyal franchise, to their fans and the community but they have been loyal to a fault to some of their veteran players and it's put them in salary cap hell. It didn't really hit me how bad it wad until I realized that they could lose Lewis and we would have to settle yet again for Willie Gay, who they called up and invited back the moment he was released. If this ain't proof the Steelers are in salary cap hell, I don't know what is.