There were no doubt several teams who took hard hits as a result of the steep reduction in the salary cap from last season to this, dropping about $15 million when it had been anticipated a year early to rise by about $10 million. A number of high-profile players ended up being released. Many more players moved in free agency when they might otherwise not have, and took one-year deals to hit a more robust market next year.
Few were hit as hard as the Pittsburgh Steelers, who ultimately lost more than a dozen starters either directly or indirectly as a result of the salary cap, including three on the offensive line (even if Maurkice Pouncey had not retired, he would have almost surely been a salary cap casualty, or he would have been coaxed into retirement, because they simply didn’t have the cap space).