This offseason, Dallas gave receiver Amari Cooper a five-year, $100 million deal with $40 million fully guaranteed. Unlike the Steelers, the Cowboys paid their star running back, awarding Elliott with a six-year, $90 million contract in 2019 that included over $50 million guaranteed. The solid play of Alualu and Isaiah Buggs has helped offset that loss. Pittsburgh did lose Javon Hargrave, a 2016 third-round pick who blossomed into a quality starter, to the Eagles this past offseason. Smith-Schuster and Conner are in the last years of their rookie contracts, while Dupree has developed into a Pro Bowl level player while playing under the franchise tag over the past two years. Pittsburgh also decided to hold off on giving extensions to Bud Dupree, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and James Conner. The Steelers also absorbed a first-round salary when they traded for Minkah Fitzpatrick, a player who has proven to be the missing piece to the Steelers' defensive puzzle. They signed tight end Eric Ebron, a 2018 Pro Bowler with the Colts, to a two-year, $12 million deal this offseason. How has Pittsburgh used that money? They extended the contracts of several key veterans, including Roethlisberger, center Maurkice Pouncey, defensive linemen Cam Heyward and Tyson Alualu, and cornerback Joe Haden. And by parting ways with Brown, they saved themselves nearly $50 million in salary from 2019-21. And while Bell's absence resulted in short term damage, the Steelers, in the long run, avoided overpaying at a position that the league has largely deemed expendable. The Steelers declined to give Bell his desired amount of guaranteed money. Pittsburgh, for one, has made smarter salary cap decisions. How did the Steelers, a team that appeared to be close to imploding less than two years ago, build a roster to start 7-0 during the Super Bowl era? Conversely, why do the Cowboys find themselves in such disarray? Steelers made smarter cap decisions than Cowboys Though it appears it should be a foregone conclusion that the Cowboys will be a non-playoff team during Mike McCarthy's first year in Dallas, in the NFC East anything could happen. And the Cowboys, even with a loss on Sunday, would not be completely out of the playoff picture. Pending a big upset, Pittsburgh will be 8-0 when they leave Texas sometime Sunday night. At 7-0, the Steelers are the NFL's last unbeaten team. Injuries have decimated the Cowboys, along with a defense that is on pace to be one of the worst in league history.įast forward to present. The 2020 Cowboys' season, once filled with promise, would already be over if the Cowboys played in any other division but the woeful NFC East. Dallas had a brief resurgence in 2018 - winning the NFC East before before losing to the Rams in the divisional round - before another non-playoff season led to the end of Jason Garrett's decade-long tenure in Dallas. The '17 Cowboys, a team that did not have Elliott for nearly half of the season, failed to make the playoffs. Things have certainly changed in the 1,454 days since the two teams last faced each other. And while both teams fell short of a title in 2016, the thought was that their Week 10 tilt could be a possible preview of a future Super Bowl. The Steelers, after a 4-5 start, won nine straight games before an injury to Bell proved too much to overcome in Pittsburgh's AFC championship game loss to New England. The 2016 Cowboys ended up winning 13 games before being upset by Aaron Rodgers and the Packers in the divisional round of the playoffs. Elliott and fellow rookie Dak Prescott had breakout performances, while Ben Roethlisberger, Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Brown played exceptionally well in a losing effort. In a game that featured 13 Pro Bowlers, the Steelers and Cowboys exchanged the lead six times before Ezekiel Elliott's 32-yard score with nine seconds left gave Dallas a 35-30 win. 13, 2016, NFL fans were treated to an epic clash between two of pro football's traditional powers.
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