Shortly after reworking the contracts for Antonio Brown, Heath Miller, and Shaun Suisham, the Steelers have completed another restructure, according to Field Yates of ESPN.com, who reports (via Twitter) that linebacker Lawrence Timmons has had his contract modified.
Timmons had been set to earn a base salary of $7.5MM in 2015, but the Steelers have reduced that figure to the minimum salary ($870K), converting the difference into a $6.63MM signing bonus. That bonus will be prorated over the final two years of Timmons’ contract, which means his cap hit for 2015 will be trimmed from about $12.566MM to about $9.416MM. His 2016 cap charge, on the other hand, will jump from $11.816MM to $14.966MM, with $6.216MM in dead money.
The move is the latest in a string of restructures for the cap-strapped Steelers, who have had to create a little extra room to accommodate injured players who have landed on IR, as well as their replacements. The most notable player on the injured reserve list so far is Suisham, with a $2MM+ cap hit. Pittsburgh acquired Josh Scobee and his $2.5MM cap charge to fill in at kicker.
