Long's contract expires after 2013, not 2012

[Locke]

There is no way we can go into 2013 with Long's cap hit being 13 million. An extension has to happen next off season if we want any room to maneuver...

[DolfanDuBbZ~]

Long is entering his prime, and has NO incentive to restructure. You either pay him his rookie contract or franchise him when the time comes.

I swear some people here live in fantasy land. Why would Long, on his rookie contract, take less money? No freaking way.

[hooshoops]

There is no way we can go into 2013 with Long's cap hit being 13 million. An extension has to happen next off season if we want any room to maneuver...

and thats when it will get done...prior to 2013...provided he plays at a high level in 2012

[foozool13]

Long is entering his prime, and has NO incentive to restructure. You either pay him his rookie contract or franchise him when the time comes.

I swear some people here live in fantasy land. Why would Long, on his rookie contract, take less money? No freaking way.

^^^ Yeah That

[Doctor Phibes]

In theory you could re-structure Jake Long's contract this offseason to pay him more money over the next two years than his existing contract pays but count less against the cap for those two years. Of course he then becomes very expensive in a few years but it's frequently done by teams near their cap limit

[DolfanDuBbZ~]

In theory you could re-structure Jake Long's contract this offseason to pay him more money over the next two years than his existing contract pays but count less against the cap for those two years. Of course he then becomes very expensive in a few years but it's frequently done by teams near their cap limit

No way he restructures. Long being a dominate LT and a former #1 overall pick, will be paid. There are others on this team you could approach to save money. But Long isn't one of them.

[Tunaphish429]

Great news...If we can redo his deal and add years that would be great..but I doubt his camp is gonna wanna do that.

[hooshoops]

In theory you could re-structure Jake Long's contract this offseason to pay him more money over the next two years than his existing contract pays but count less against the cap for those two years. Of course he then becomes very expensive in a few years but it's frequently done by teams near their cap limit

yeah you could do that and you could create a situation where you put yourself in salary cap hell down the line as a result...

[Doctor Phibes]

No way he restructures. Long being a dominate LT and a former #1 overall pick, will be paid. There are others on this team you could approach to save money. But Long isn't one of them.

How is it then that any star player extends a contract with his current team ? Why don't they all just wait for free agency ?

[Dominate]

Long is entering his prime, and has NO incentive to restructure. You either pay him his rookie contract or franchise him when the time comes.

I swear some people here live in fantasy land. Why would Long, on his rookie contract, take less money? No freaking way.

You are right in that he has no real incentive to restructure, but you should know that restructuring a contract does not necessarily mean taking a paycut. I'm no capologist, but contract restructures are frequently done which actually benefit the player and also helps reduce the salary cap hit. I do know that at times it can be a risky deal because it has the potential to cause cap problems in the later years of the deal.

Not saying that it is possible or applicable in Long's case because I really don't know all the details of his contract, but I've seen it done quite often.

Example....Off ESPN....The Steelers are fairly active in this practice this offseason:

"Quarterback
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and linebacker
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are willing to restructure their contracts to help the Steelers get under the salary cap by March 13, the agents for both players told the
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.


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By my projection, the Steelers could trim between $6 million to $7 million off the salary cap by reworking the deals of Roethlisberger and Harrison. Those would be significant moves for the Steelers, who are about $11 million over the cap right now.

Pittsburgh has already restructured the contracts for linebackers
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and
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as well as cornerback
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, which saved them $14 million against the cap.

What does this all mean? Pittsburgh is reducing the players' cap numbers by turning base salaries into bonuses. For instance, Woodley's 2012 cap number was chopped from $11.5 million to $4.9 million -- a savings of $6.6 million -- because they converted most of this year's salary and a roster bonus into a $8.2 million up-front payment. That $8.2 million gets pro-rated over the five years remaining on his contract, so that's an additional $1.6 million added to his cap numbers in 2012 to 2016.

Essentially, the Steelers are reducing cap hits in 2012 by pushing them off into future years. The hope is that the NFL salary cap will increase each year, so these restructured contracts won't handcuff the team next season and beyond. Where restructuring can hurt a team is when it cuts a player who has multiple years left on his contract because all of the cap acceleration hits at once."