The Steelers last night restructured the contract of halfback Duce Staley, and then put on hold negotiations with other players when the NFL and its players union agreed to delay the start of free agency another 72 hours to 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

If an extension of the collective bargaining agreement is not reached by then, each NFL team must be under the $94.5 million cap. It is the second extension the sides have agreed to since free agency was scheduled to begin Friday.

Center Jeff Hartings, scheduled to earn $4.75 million this season, was the subject of negotiations to reduce his salary before the extension was granted. The Steelers also were negotiating with backup center Chukky Okobi to reduce his $2 million salary.

"We did nothing," Okobi's agent Joe Linta said. "He never called me."

The Steelers entered yesterday needing to shave about $2 million from their payroll to comply with the league's salary cap.

They apparently made it.

Even when they do, in the coming days or weeks they must perform more capnastics, as some refer to the creative ways teams and agents find to open more salary cap room if the cap remains $94.5 million. Without more room, they could not re-sign any of their free agents they want back, not to mention make a bid for others, and they also would have no room to sign their next rookie draft class.

They found some room when Staley agreed to restructure his contract to reduce his $2.5 million salary for 2006.

Hartings, 33, was to earn a $4 million salary and also was to receive a $750,000 roster bonus five days after the league year begins, a date that was delayed from Friday until today. The Steelers restructured Hartings' salary a few times previously. By doing so, they replaced his salary with signing bonuses and pushed off much of his salary cap hit until this year. Thus, even though he was to make $4.75 million, his salary cap figure was $8,129,167, by far their highest in history.

When Okobi, drafted in 2001, signed his new contract in 2004, the Steelers negotiated his pay with Linta for 2006 as if he would be their starter after Hartings retired. Okobi, 27, was to earn $2 million in salary this year.

Hartings had a chronically sore knee and often talked about retiring.

Omar Khan, the Steelers' chief negotiator, discussed different scenarios with all three targeted players that would depend on whether the CBA were extended and thus the salary cap raised this year by more than $10 million, or if nothing were done and it remained at $94.5 million.

While no salaries can rise more than 30 percent under CBA rules that go into affect in 2007, there are still loopholes to find ways to get the players more money next year.

The Steelers were one of an estimated 10 teams over the $94.5 million salary cap earlier yesterday, but they had it easy compared to others who were far more over the cap and had little time to make the moves necessary to get in line before the extension was announced last night.

"How in the world can they expect to get a hold of the player and the agent and get a deal done in two hours?" wondered Linta, who also was embroiled in negotiations with the Chiefs over restructuring the contract of Pro Bowl guard Will Shields.