As Steelers' Kevin Colbert prepares to exit role, he has abundance of free-agent money to spend

INDIANAPOLIS — Kevin Colbert has reason to smile when he thinks about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ finances heading into free agency.

Unlike last year.

When the 2020 season ended, and with the salary cap decreasing because of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on revenues, Colbert found himself trimming about $34 million in cap dollars via retirements, terminations and restructures.

The NFL’s revenue streams are back on track this offseason, the cap is going up and Colbert has more financial flexibility than he can remember at any time during his two-decade tenure with the organization.

“I think it’s exciting,” Colbert said Tuesday at the NFL Combine. “It’s unusual, and we’ll try to make the best decisions we can. We can do some things that we haven’t been able to do previously.”

The Steelers are an estimated $29 million under the salary cap, which is projected to increase to $208.2 million after dipping to $182.5 last year. When the two-day negotiating period to bid on outside free agents begins March 14, Colbert will have room to maneuver without needing to free up cap space like he did a year ago. Steve Nelson’s contract was terminated after the Steelers re-signed cornerback Cameron Sutton. Vince Williams’ contract also was terminated, although he was brought back at a reduced rate before eventually deciding to retire. The Steelers also freed money by restructuring Ben Roethlisberger and Cameron Heyward’s deals.

The Steelers have some bloated salaries on the books — linebacker Joe Schobert’s $9.72 million price tag is one example — but Colbert doesn’t to have take immediate action before the start of the NFL calendar year March 16.

“I can’t remember when we’ve had this much room going into it,” Colbert said. “I know it’s been a while since we’ve gone into it without making some subtractions or renegotiations.”

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Another departure from last year is that Colbert, who is entering his final two months on the job before he steps down as general manager, won’t have to break from franchise protocol by adding voidable years to free-agent contracts. The Steelers added voidable years when they reworked Roethlisberger’s contract. They also did it when they re-signed receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster in free agency, when they added pass rusher Melvin Ingram, and in a restructure with tight end Eric Ebron that resulted in $22 million in “dead” money on this year’s cap.

“It was an unusual year with the low cap because of the pandemic and reduced revenues,” Colbert said. “We had to be open to new ideas. Would we use those type of ideas moving forward? I think that’s doubtful. We’re getting back to something a little more normal from the salary cap.

“Never close the door, but we’ll probably get back to business as usual.”

The Steelers historically aren’t active in bringing in outside free agents on the first day of the annual feeding frenzy. They usually wait to make their moves once the market has settled. This year, though, with an abundance of salary-cap space, Colbert has the resources to address vacancies on the offensive and defensive lines, linebacker, strong safety and, of course, quarterback in the wake of Roethlisberger’s retirement.

The Steelers typically try to bring back their impending free agents before looking outside. This year’s crop includes right tackle Chuks Okorafor, cornerbacks Joe Haden and Ahkello Witherspoon, safety Terrell Edmunds as well as Smith-Schuster.

Colbert convened with his scouts last week to go over the free-agent list. If he favors a free agent to a member of the 2022 quarterback class to provide competition for incumbents Mason Rudolph and Dwayne Haskins, he is not tipping his hand.

“We’re open to any,” Colbert said. “We think we have two capable NFL quarterbacks. How we add to that? I can’t say because it continues to evolve.”

Colbert doesn’t publicly comment on individual players, and he said it’s difficult to earmark a position of depth in free agency that might of interest to the Steelers because the franchise and transition tags remove the best candidates from discussion.

“Those players often don’t make it to the market,” he said. “We understand that. We try to do that ourselves. That is still a very wide-open situation, and we can’t even talk to their agents until the given two-day period. We don’t know who might be available even if we have them rated.”

Colbert will spend this week interviewing and scouting the 324 prospects invited to the NFL Combine. It will be his final chance to do it while he holds the general manager title, but Colbert isn’t ready to get sentimental about his dwindling time in office.

“I’m just excited to be back into what we think is a pretty normal setting,” he said. “It’s great to be here and to be able to do this and leave here and go to the pro days. That is exciting. Nostalgic? No, we have so much to accomplish in the next two months that you don’t have time to sit there and reflect. When it’s all said and done, we might get nostalgic, but right now? No.”