In the past two offseasons, the opening days of free agency has brought the Steelers the likes of linebacker Patrick Queen, safety DeShon Elliott, linebacker Elandon Roberts, guard Isaac Seumalo and quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Justin Fields – though Fields was acquired via a trade – among others.
They've been aggressive in filling their needs – particularly aggressive considering their past.
Thing is, the Steelers have been that aggressive in free agency the past couple of seasons because they had the available salary cap space. And this year, according to numbers released by the NFL earlier this week, the Steelers enter free agency – which begins with the legal tampering period Monday and officially kicks into full gear Wednesday – with the seventh-most available cap space, nearly $60 million, among all 32 teams.
So, while all teams got a bump last week in cap space when the league informed teams what the 2025 salary cap would be, the Steelers didn't need to necessarily concern themselves with the actual cap. They already knew they would be under.
As we've already seen this week, a number of teams across the league are not. Players are getting released left and right by teams working to become cap compliant. Contracts are being adjusted, which is great for the player, who gets a big check instead of having to wait for it. But the team owner has to write that big check as opposed to paying it out over the course of the season.
And it also simply pushes the player's future cap hit higher, which the Browns have done several times to their own detriment with quarterback DeShaun Watson – something the Browns did again this week in an effort to get under the 2025 salary cap. At some point, the bill comes due.
Per OvertheCap.com, which tracks such things, the Steelers currently have the least amount of "dead money," cap space paid out to players no longer on the roster, of any team in the NFL entering the 2025 season at less than $50,000.
On the opposite end of that spectrum is San Francisco, which has nearly $66 million in dead money counting against its cap and you see the difference.
The Steelers currently have freedom to improve their roster that few other teams in the NFL possess.
And they've largely mined free agency well, signing outside free agents to shorter-term contracts that don't hamstring the franchise in future years, while also getting players who have contributed in big ways.
They haven't all been hits, but nobody bats 1.000 in free agency or the draft for that matter.
But with what look to be very solid drafts in back-to-back seasons, the team has set itself up for continued improvement in 2025. Even at positions where they might lose someone in free agency this offseason have been addressed in the draft in the past couple of years. There are young players waiting in the wings as replacements.
Baltimore can't say the same in regard to offensive linemen Ronnie Stanley and Patrick Mekari, both of whom are among the team's players slated to hit unrestricted free agency next week. And the Ravens, as of Thursday night, only had $12 million in available cap space.
Cincinnati has more with $52 million, but a large portion of that will be eaten up when wide receiver Tee Higgins' franchise tag goes on the books. And there's also a Ja'Marr Chase extension looming.
Add to that the team agreed to allow defensive end Trey Hendrickson to seek a trade on Thursday, and it wouldn't be surprising to see the rest of the division take a step back in 2025.
The Steelers, meanwhile, figure to improve.
• Steelers fans should be cheering for the likes of Dan Moore, James Daniels, Najee Harris and others to get big contracts elsewhere if and when they're not re-signed by the Steelers.
With some of those players – and potentially at least one quarterback – likely to sign elsewhere, the Steelers can play the compensatory pick game this offseason if they work things well.
That's where players who have been released since the end of the season can come into play.
Because of the rules involved with compensatory picks, players who are released by another team and signed by a new one don't count against the signing team's compensatory formula. Players whose contracts expired with their old team do.
So, if weighing Play A, whose contract has expired and is a true free agent, versus Player B, who was released by his former team, Player B just might have a little more value to a team that is in line to lose to players who should be starters elsewhere. They very well could net the team that loses them a compensatory pick or two.
And the bigger the contract signed by the team that loses the free agent without making subsequent forays into free agency, the better.
So don't hate on, for example, Moore getting a big deal elsewhere. It's both good for him and also might be good for the Steelers, especially now that compensatory picks can be traded.
• Since the loss of Ryan Shazier to a career-ending injury at the end of the 2017 season, the Steelers have headed into the offseason every year in search of potential replacements for the Pro Bowl linebacker.
They have run through the likes of Jon Bostic, Morgan Burnett, Devin Bush, Marcus Allen, Avery Williamson, Robert Spillane, Joe Schobert and Miles Jack, among others, in an attempt to replicate the production or flexibility that Shazier gave them.
In Queen and Payton Wilson, a third-round draft pick last year, they finally seem to have finally gotten it right. Add to that the fact that Cole Holcomb, who appeared as if he might be an answer two years ago before suffering a season-ending injury, will be back in 2025, and the Steelers seem to be reasonably set at the position.
In fact, this will be the first offseason since Shazier suffered his tragic injury that the Steelers won't head into the offseason searching for answers at inside linebacker.
They tried free agency. They tried the draft. But seldom did they do both.
Last year, they did both, and it finally worked out.
• Dale Lolley is co-host of "SNR Drive" on Steelers Nation Radio. Subscribe to the podcast here: Apple Podcast | iHeart Podcast Pittonline@iheartmedia.com
• It's mock draft season, especially now that the NFL Scouting Combine has been completed. But remember that the mock drafts you see now become completely moot over the next couple of weeks.
For example, earlier this week, Chicago made pre-free agency trades to acquire veteran guards Jonah Jackson from the Rams and Joe Thuney from the Chiefs.
Pretty much every mock draft that has become available in the days, weeks and months leading up to those acquisitions had the Bears taking an offensive lineman with their pick in the first round.
Chicago could still do that, but it's more likely the Bears just opened up their draft board to any number of possibilities by adding two veteran players to their line.
That's what will be happening across the league over the next few weeks. Teams with major needs will fill them in free agency, shuffling the way the draft may fall.
• One other thing to keep in mind as we get closer to the draft is that just because this web site or that website has a certain player ranked somewhere doesn't mean that's how NFL teams view him.
At this point, no player is rising up or down on the draft boards of actual NFL teams – at least not ones that know what they're doing.
The only "boards" on which players are making massive moves are the ones of the draft analysts who are late to the party or don't have the same amount of information available to them that teams do.
And in this year's draft, which isn't deep at the top of the first round in terms of having sure first-round picks, there's a good chance we'll see some players go in the first round that were unexpected by the analysts as well as some "first-round talents" that fall into Day 2.
Once you get past the first 10 or so picks this year, the next 50 to 60 players will have similar grades. And beauty and need will be in the eye of the beholder.
