Early 2009 Steelers Salary Cap Numbers

Here is an early look at the Steelers 2009 salary cap situation. These numbers are not exact, but to the best of my research are close. Listed is the 2009 base salary of players under contract and the estimated 2009 cap charge. The 2009 NFL salary cap is set to be 127 million dollars per team and my best estimation, the Steelers are right at about 100 million. This means they are roughly 27 million under the cap at this time. I will break down who will likely be a cap casualty in future post, but as of right now, I could see Larry Foote and Kendall Simmons as possible cap casualties. Please note these numbers are estimations.

Edited on 2/25/09 to reflect Max Starks franchise tag number which leaves the Steelers around $18,757,000.00 of cap room.

Edited again to reflect the tenders, the releases and some dead money. Steelers roughly just 7 million or less under the cap at this point headed into free agency.

Edited again to reflect the closer exclusive rights tender amounts of Carey Davis & Jeremy Parquet, Also addded Chris Kemoeatu contract and adjusted the new contract for Sean McHugh. Steelers roughly just 3.5 million or more under the cap at this point.

Edited on 3/02/09 to reflect the “Rule of 51” which I totally forgot about in all of my number crunching. This rule states that only the top 51 salaries are counted against the Steelers salary cap in the offseason. Right now that number is ROUGHLY $121,046,097.00 which would mean the Steelers are around 6 million dollars under the salary cap. Being as some of my numbers are not exact, I figure I have a plus or minus error of around 3 million dollars, so realistically the Steelers may have around 9 million in available cap room or as low as 3 million left available as of this date.

Edited on 3/04/09 to reflect the real contract numbers of Sean McHugh and added Martin Nance who re-signed. Cap total around $120,809,430.00

Edited on 3/12/09 to reflect Willie Colon and Andre Frazier signings. Cap total around $121,106,930.00 when applying the rule of 51. This leaves the Steelers around 6 million under the cap with a plus or minus error of 3 million

Edited on 3/16/09 to reflect Chris Kemoeatu true contract numbers. Cap total around $118,894,930.00 when applying the rule of 51. This leaves the Steelers around 8 million under the cap with a plus or minus error of 2 million. This is yet to reflect the Arnold Harrison signing which I should have in a few days.

Edited on 3/17/09 to reflect Trai Essex, Fernando Bryant and Arnold Harrison signings. Cap total around $119,814,930.00 when applying the rule of 51. This leaves the Steelers around 7 million under the cap with a plus or minus error of 1.5 million.

Edited on 4/13/09 to reflect Keyaron Fox signings. Cap total around $120,500,000.00 when applying the rule of 51. This leaves the Steelers around 6.5 million under the cap with a plus or minus error of 1.5 million.

Edited on 4/14/09 to reflect Charlie Batch signing. Cap total around $120,749,930.00 when applying the rule of 51. This does not include the new James Harrison contract of which I am expecting the new numbers on any day. Harrison likely will count at or around 5 million against the cap, thus putting the Steelers around $124,500,000.00 This would leave the Steelers around 2.5 million under the cap if my numbers are correct.

Edited on 4/15/09 to reflect James Harrison contract numbers. Cap total around $125,205,930.00 when applying the rule of 51. This would leave the Steelers around 1.75 million under the cap if my numbers are correct. It should be noted the Harrison contract is extremely front loaded and creatively done. His base salary is only $800,000 with a $6.2 million dollar cap hit. I will detail his contract in a future post.

Edited on 4/16/09 to reflect Gary Russell release. This leaves me to believe my numbers are pretty close as this was a salary cap move to ensure enough money would be allocated to the rookie pool of the upcoming draft. The Russell release frees up $75,000 in the cap as the next salary to move up in the Rule of 51 is $385,000 versus the salary of Russell was to be $460,000. Cap total around $125,130,930.00 when applying the rule of 51. This would leave the Steelers around 2 million under the cap which for this time of year and a week away from the draft seems spot on. I would note my margin of error at plus or minus $1 million dollars at this point, but truly believe I am very close.

Edited on 4/23/09 to reflect updated Charlie Batch numbers. Also I had been counting Kendall Simmons and Sean Mahan in the top 51 salaries. There salary cap dead money counts, but they are not to be included in the top 51 as they are no longer on the roster. The current cap number I have is $125,135,930.00 which leaves only less than $2.0 million under the cap. I am missing some incentive and bonus money still probably in the neighborhood of 1 million dollars. So realistically they are only a million or less under the cap.

Edited on 6/23/09 to reflect Fernando Bryant retirement, Max Starks new cap number, 6 released players and all current rookie signings. The total salary cap number when applying the Rule of 51 is around $121,956,930.00 or roughly 5 million dollars under the 127 million salary cap. This total has a margin of error of around 1.5 million dollars to the best of my calculations.

Edited on 6/23/09 Forgot to do the new Hines Ward contract numbers. Roughly with best estimates this leaves the cap number at $117,956,930.00 or 9 million under the cap with a margin of error of 2 million dollars.

Edited on 7/30/09 To reflect the Ziggy Hood, Kraig Urbik and Heath Miller contracts. Right now the Miller contract is a gross estimation until I get the true base numbers. Right now my best estimation is the total Rule 51 salary cap total is $123,581,597.00 or 3.5 million under the cap with a margin of error of 2 million dollars.

Edited on 8/3/09 To reflect the new Heath Miller contract. Based on the numbers below, the 2009 cap charge for Miller will be in the neighborhood of $3,960,000.00. This puts the Steelers 2009 salary cap total at about $121,541,597.00 or about 5.5 million dollars under the cap with a plus or minus area of 2 million dollars.

Edited on 9/2/09 To reflect the new Brett Keisel contract and the release of Steven Black, Martin Nance, Alex Stepanovich and Derrick Richardson. This puts the Steelers 2009 salary cap total at about $119,793,597.00 or about 7 million dollars under the cap with a plus or minus area of 2 million dollars.

Edited on 9/6/09 To reflect the final cuts and 53 man roster that includes two players on injured reserve and all dead money of players released or traded that were owed signing bonus money that has to go against the cap. This puts the Steelers 2009 salary cap total at about $120,195,833.33 or about 6.75 million dollars under the cap with a plus or minus area of 2.5 million dollars. With all likelihood, the real cap total is around $123,000,000.00 or 4 million under the cap.