Antonio Brown, Heath Miller, Shaun Suisham Agree to New Steelers Contracts

Creeping right up to the edge of the salary cap, the Pittsburgh Steelers have restructured contracts for three players to free up some money.   

According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the Steelers reworked the deals for Antonio Brown, Heath Miller and Shaun Suisham to create roughly $6 million in cap space. 

Schefter added what the Steelers hope to do with the new available money:

According to OverTheCap.com, prior to restructuring these three deals, the Steelers had approximately $4.3 million in cap space this season. Only the Detroit Lions and the New Orleans Saints had less than that. 

Starting center Maurkice Pouncey suffered an ankle injury against the Green Bay Packers on August 21 that is expected to keep him out until after the team's bye in Week 11, per Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. 

Suisham is out for the season after tearing his ACL during the Hall of Fame game against the Minnesota Vikings. The Steelers signed Garrett Hartley to be their new kicker, but he injured his hamstring against the Buffalo Bills on August 29. 

The Steelers will also open the season without running back Le'Veon Bell for two games and wide receiver Martavis Bryant for four games. Both players were suspended for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy.  

It's been a rough summer for the Steelers thus far, but they are still in a good position to compete for an AFC North title with an offensive nucleus that includes quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and Brown. They open the season on September 10 against the New England Patriots.

Roethlisberger and Brown will have to be at the top of their games right away to keep the Steelers afloat as they get back the injured and suspended players if they want to defend their AFC North title in 2015. 

Creating extra cap space does give Pittsburgh's front office a little wiggle room to sign players after teams cut their rosters to 53 players next week. They are going to need healthy bodies while waiting for some of these players to return.