Salary Cap Hasn’t Really Dinged the Steelers

NFL dynasties were supposed to end with the arrival of free agency and the salary cap.

Supposedly, teams would never be able to afford all the stars they’d need to keep a dynasty together, so instead we’d see a never-ending revolving door of Super Bowl champs. As one team was gutted by free agency, the next team on the rise would step up, only to repeat the process.

During the 1990s, that argument seemed to make some sense as the Cowboys and 49ers went for broke, then went bust as the ran up against the salary cap. The Steelers couldn’t be called a dynasty, but they followed a similar pattern as quarterback Neil O’Donnell, linebackers Kevin Greene, Greg Lloyd and Chad Brown and wide receiver Yancey Thigpen all left in free agency. The result? The team dipped to its worst stretch of the past 20 years in the late 1990s.

But as we know now, that’s not really what ended up happening. The Patriots haven’t really had a problem keeping the core of their team together during a very successful run during the first decade of the new century. And now the Steelers have made it to three Super Bowls in six years with a team that has the same stars.

But while we may all know that, it is still remarkable how much of the core from Pittsburgh’s 2005 team is still together. As crazy as it may seem, over the six-year span from the 2005 Super Bowl champs to last year’s Super Bowl losers, Pittsburgh managed to keep nearly as many starters as the 70′s Steelers did from their first title in 1974 to their final one in 1979.

If you look back at the 70s Steelers, 11 starters from the 1974 squad were still starting in 1979. That’s using the widest definition of starter possible — Larry Brown moved from tight end to right tackle, but he counts. L.C. Greenwood was a part-time starter, but he counts. Another four 1979 starters were backups on the 1974 teams.

Here’s the breakdown of the 1974 and 1979 teams compared.

Now, the 2010 Steelers had nine starters who were also starters on the 2005 Super Bowl champs (seven if you don’t want to count special teams players, and admittedly Jeff Reed is a tenuous match). Another four 2010 starters were backups on the 2005 team. That’s not as many as the ’70s Steelers, but it’s not far off. And it seems to be proof that nowadays, the salary cap isn’t a detriment to keeping a team together. In the Steelers’ case, seven of the starters from the 2005 Steelers who weren’t around in 2010 had retired. Only Chris Hope (who left for the Titans in free agency) and Alan Faneca (who left for the Jets in free agency) could be considered players who left despite the Steelers’ desire to keep them around. Normal attrition led to some roster changeover, but it’s hard to say that free agency really affected the Steelers in any significant fashion.

In other words, if you bought a jersey of your favorite Steeler back in 2004 or 2005, there was a decent chance that you wouldn’t look out of place wearing it to a game this season.

The same test can be applied to other dynasties. Check out the 49ers, the undisputed team of the ’80s. Only five of the ’88 starters were also starters on the 1981 Super Bowl champs and only one other starter was even on the team. This is trying to give the 49ers the benefit of the doubt–the dynasty was really confirmed with the 1989 Super Bowl title.

The Steelers have clearly made a decision that they will do everything possible to keep the current team together. At some point in the next couple of years, Pittsburgh will have to turn over a significant portion of the roster — the defense will be the oldest in the league again this year. But for now, Pittsburgh has managed to keep the core of its team together for more than half a decade. Apparently the salary cap isn’t nearly the detriment to keeping a team together that it was once believed to be.

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3. Starks Out, Season Doomed … Now What?
4. Steelers’ Roster Moves May be Complete, Despite Glaring Need At Tackle
5. Dreaming of a Top-Tier Pittsburgh Steelers’ Practice Squad