The Steelers make it official, place Maurkice Pouncey on Reserve/Retired List

The Pittsburgh Steelers make Maurkice Pouncey’s retirement official, freeing up some valuable salary cap space.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been slowly freeing up salary cap space this offseason, and in different ways. They have the roll over money from the 2020 season, Cameron Heyward agreed to restructuring his current contract and most recently have been retirements.

After Vance McDonald retired earlier this offseason, veteran center Maurkice Pouncey followed suit and called it a career just a few weeks ago. On Monday afternoon the Steelers made the retirement official by placing Pouncey on the Reserve/Retired List.

This per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network:

For those who might wonder what significance this has on the roster, here is a breakdown of what Pouncey going on the Reserve/Retire List means, per OverTheCap:

The retired list is what players are placed upon if they choose to retire rather than honor their contracts. This is more procedural than anything else. The player does not count towards the roster nor do they carry any cap charges as contracts are treated just as if the player was cut for salary cap purposes with prorated bonus money accelerating and being included as “dead money”. Teams do maintain the rights to players on the retired list. These lists are not included on the site.

With Pouncey officially going on the aforementioned list, it clears his salary cap hit. After Pouncey’s and McDonald’s retirements, and some roll over money from 2020, they are still over the projected salary cap for 2021.

With the new league year coming in March, and the Steelers already over the salary cap, you an expect other decisions to be made to help the team not just get cap compliant, but also to free up enough space to allow them to sign some players in Free Agency.

Stay tuned to BTSC for the latest news and notes surrounding the black and gold as they prepare for the new league year, NFL Free Agency and the 2021 NFL Draft.