Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette addressed Steelers CB Ike Taylor‘s future with the team during a recent mailbag.
According to Dulac, “the best Ike can hope for is to be offered — and for him to accept — a big pay cut.”
Dulac doesn’t see the Steelers converting him to safety either citing the fact that Taylor is “not a good tackler, nor is he that physical.”
Taylor, 33, is set to make $7 million in 2014 and carries a cap figure of $11.9 million. The Steelers could free up $7 million in cap space by releasing him outright, and given their current financial situation, it seems like this is almost too much to pass up.
As things stand right now, the Steelers are projected to be over the 2014 cap by close to $10 million, which means moves will need to be made in order to get them cap compliant. On top of that, OLB Jason Worilds and WR Emmanuel Sanders will both be unrestricted free agents, so they will need plenty of cap space to prevent them from testing the open market.
Taylor was rated as the No. 97 cornerback out of out of 110 qualifying players in the league last season, according Pro Football Focus.
Looking for the latest NFL Insider News & Rumors?
Be sure to follow NFL Trade Rumors on TWITTER and FACEBOOK for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!
Ike Taylor is a great competitor and great professional! He has personally cut the field in half for the Steelers for the past decade as he covers the oppositions best receiver week in and week out! If this is a cap casualty, there will be huge shoes to fill.
This team has such a terrible cap situation for years now, Kevin Colbert has hamstrung this team year after year
They keep pushing money further down the line and it’s cost them some good players like Mike Wallace and Keenan Lewis in process.
Mike Wallace is not good and Kennan Lewis can not catch….neither was worth the money they were asking for
Lewis is an excellent CB that the Steelers will regret losing and NO got him for a song.
Keenan Lewis [for the Steelers] was absolutely a solid, starter-capable CB, period. I will never grasp why the Steelers allowed him to walk.
Tip: A CB’s first priority is not to INT the football. It is to defend the pass. [ Not allow the catch ]
Mike Wallace was absolutely a ‘weapon’ for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The entire football world would/did recognize Wallace as a ‘weapon’ for any team. Arguably one-dimensional, but a ‘weapon’ nonetheless.
Ike Taylor can not catch either, but there was a reason the Pittsburgh Steelers typically had Taylor covering other team’s best WR all day long.
Dmar: Your mind. It’s flawed.
Mike Wallace isn’t under “Good player lost”! He’s more under, good player let go. Lewis didnt want to come back, he wanted to play near his home. What these dumb contracts do is limit getting good Free Agents.
Ed, you make a good point that the Steelers did try to keep him by offering him a long-term deal, even though it was nowhere close to the contract the Dolphins gave him. With that in mind, you’re correct that they allowed him to leave.