The start of 2018 NFL league year has arrived and we seemingly now know all of the transactions the Pittsburgh Steelers made leading up to Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. EST. With these key items known, we can now take a look at where the Steelers currently are in relation to the league’s salary cap and what awaits them the remainder of the offseason.
As you can see in the table below, I have the Steelers currently $7,774,766 $6,572,766 under the salary cap as of Thursday morning. Be warned, however, that that number is far from official. In fact, the NFLPA salary cap number for the Steelers as of Thursday morning is $6,512,746 under In short, I have a $60,020 difference and have yet to find it in my work at the time of this post so please forgive me. I am, however, thrilled that I’m that close.
The numbers below do include the franchise tag on running back Le’Veon Bell, and the recent restricted tenders issued to kicker Chris Boswell and outside linebacker Anthony Chickillo. All four contract restructures that have been reported this offseason are also included. With there currently being some uncertainly about whether or not wide receiver Martavis Bryant qualifies for the Proven Performance Escalator in 2018 I mentioned several weeks ago, I chose not to increase his salary. ((UPDATE: The NFLPA added this on Thursday morning to their update so I have updated the table and post)) On that same topic, the contract numbers for tight end Jesse James do reflect the PPE for 2018.
The salary cap table below also includes the $4,040,611 rollover of 2017’s left over salary cap space in addition to the $246,991 cap credit the Steelers received on the NFLPA daily report at the beginning of this month. Also, please remember that the offseason salary cap works on the Rule of 51.
Now, just because the Steelers are currently roughly $7.7 million under the salary cap doesn’t mean they still don’t have quite a bit of work ahead of them this offseason. For starters, they’re going to need to account for roughly nearly $5.5 million in future charges down the road that will encompass offseason workout bonuses, a possible injury benefit claim, a 52nd and 53rd roster player, a 10-man practice squad and roster displacement of their 2018 draft class once signed. Additionally, the Steelers will likely want to have at least $3 million in salary cap space available to them come the start of the regular season in order to make in-season moves. On my rough estimates alone, that’s an additional $8.5 million in salary cap space that’s needed which is nearly one million more than they have available right now. Don’t worry abiout all of that right now, however, as that’s down the road and all fluid.
The Steelers obviously have enough salary cap space currently to sign a few free agents if they so choose and that of course depends on the contracts issued and the roster displacement that would follow. It will also be interesting to see if any more restructures wind up getting reported in the coming days and if a player such as safety J.J. Wilcox agreed to cut his salary in order to stay with the team. For now, however, we must go with what we know has been reported. If anything else happened in the last few days it will surface soon on the NFLPA daily report.
The Steelers can also potentially create some salary cap space for 2018 should they ultimately be able to work out long-term contract extensions with Bell and Boswell. How much room can be created depends on the structure of each contract. The deadline to sign Bell to a new contract is July 16 while Boswell’s deadline is essentially Week 1 of the 2018 regular season being as the Steelers generally don’t do contract extensions in-season.
| UNOFFICIAL STEELERS 2018 SALARY CAP UPDATE – 3/14/18 | ||
|---|---|---|
| UNDER CONTRACT | ||
| PLAYER | BASE SALARY | CAP CHARGE |
| Ben Roethlisberger | $12,000,000 | $23,200,000 |
| Le’Veon Bell | $14,544,000 | $14,544,000 |
| Cameron Heyward | $9,000,000 | $12,456,250 |
| Joe Haden | $9,000,000 | $11,916,666 |
| Maurkice Pouncey | $7,000,000 | $10,551,000 |
| Ryan Shazier | $8,718,000 | $8,718,000 |
| Antonio Brown | $915,000 | $7,955,000 |
| Marcus Gilbert | $4,050,000 | $7,358,500 |
| David DeCastro | $790,000 | $5,687,500 |
| Stephon Tuitt | $790,000 | $5,432,000 |
| Vance McDonald | $3,700,000 | $4,318,750 |
| Alejandro Villanueva | $705,000 | $4,095,000 |
| J.J. Wilcox | $3,125,000 | $3,800,000 |
| Tyson Alualu | $3,000,000 | $3,625,000 |
| Ramon Foster | $2,675,000 | $3,591,668 |
| Bud Dupree | $1,692,585 | $2,934,364 |
| Chris Boswell | $2,914,000 | $2,914,000 |
| Artie Burns | $1,321,908 | $2,615,723 |
| Vince Williams | $2,000,000 | $2,500,000 |
| Landry Jones | $1,900,000 | $2,200,000 |
| T.J. Watt | $885,855 | $2,104,275 |
| Jesse James | $1,907,000 | $1,959,228 |
| Anthony Chickillo | $1,907,000 | $1,907,000 |
| Jordan Berry | $1,907,000 | $1,907,000 |
| Coty Sensabaugh | $1,400,000 | $1,612,500 |
| Roosevelt Nix | $1,000,000 | $1,437,500 |
| Darrius Heyward-Bey | $1,200,000 | $1,333,334 |
| Sean Davis | $821,542 | $1,114,627 |
| JuJu Smith-Schuster | $655,717 | $953,586 |
| Javon Hargrave | $691,000 | $864,314 |
| Cameron Sutton | $587,400 | $771,432 |
| Jerald Hawkins | $630,000 | $762,622 |
| James Conner | $555,000 | $731,572 |
| Leterrius Walton | $705,000 | $734,232 |
| L.J. Fort | $705,000 | $705,000 |
| Martavis Bryant | $1,907,000 | $1,907,000 |
| Joshua Dobbs | $555,000 | $694,781 |
| Tyler Matakevich | $630,000 | $645,763 |
| B.J. Finney | $630,000 | $630,000 |
| Dashaun Phillips | $630,000 | $630,000 |
| Kameron Canaday | $630,000 | $630,000 |
| Xavier Grimble | $630,000 | $630,000 |
| Brian Allen | $555,000 | $612,547 |
| Jordan Dangerfield | $555,000 | $555,000 |
| Matt Feiler | $555,000 | $555,000 |
| Mike Hilton | $555,000 | $555,000 |
| Keion Adams | $480,000 | $496,507 |
| Antonio Crawford | $480,000 | $480,000 |
| Casey Sayles | $480,000 | $480,000 |
| Darnell Leslie | $480,000 | $480,000 |
| Farrington Huguenin | $480,000 | $480,000 |
| Jake McGee | $480,000 | $480,000 |
| James Summers | $480,000 | $480,000 |
| Justin Thomas | $480,000 | $480,000 |
| Keith Kelsey | $480,000 | $480,000 |
| Lavon Hooks | $480,000 | $480,000 |
| Malik Golden | $480,000 | $480,000 |
| Marcus Tucker | $480,000 | $480,000 |
| Matt Galambos | $480,000 | $480,000 |
| Matt Wile | $480,000 | $480,000 |
| Tevin Jones | $480,000 | $480,000 |
| Trey Griffey | $480,000 | $480,000 |
| PROJECTED TOTAL UNDER CONTRACT | $120,910,007 | $175,053,241 |
| DEAD MONEY | ||
| PLAYER | CAP CHARGE | |
| Mike Mitchell | $3,135,418 | |
| William Gay | $633,334 | |
| Robert Golden | $416,668 | |
| Senquez Golson | $292,462 | |
| James Harrison | $250,000 | |
| Sammie Coates | $157,879 | |
| David Johnson | $117,500 | |
| Colin Holba | $96,996 | |
| Francis Kallon | $8,000 | |
| Ethan Cooper | $6,667 | |
| Keith Kelsey | $6,667 | |
| Rushel Shell | $5,000 | |
| Nelson Adams | $3,334 | |
| Terrish Webb | $3,334 | |
| Scott Orndoff | $3,334 | |
| Christian Brown | $2,334 | |
| Matt Galambos | $1,334 | |
| Phazahn Odom | $1,334 | |
| PROJECTED TOTAL DEAD MONEY | $5,141,595 | |
| 2017 CAP ROLLOVER | $4,040,611 | |
| MARCH NFLPA CREDIT | $246,991 | |
| RULE OF 51 TOTAL | $174,914,836 | |
| 2018 NFL SALARY CAP | $177,200,000 | |
| OVER/UNDER CAP | UNDER | $6,572,766 |
2018 Steelers Transaction Recap
03/14/2018 – Released S Mike Mitchell, CB William Gay and S Robert Golden.
03/13/2018 – Original-round restricted tender placed on OLB Anthony Chickillo.
03/13/2018 – Second-round restricted tender placed on K Chris Boswell.
03/13/2018 – Restructured contract of T Alejandro Villanueva.
03/07/2018 – Restructured contract of WR Antonio Brown.
03/06/2018 – Franchise tag placed on RB Le’Veon Bell
02/10/2018 – Restructured contracts of DE Stephon Tuitt and G David DeCastro.
02/10/2018 – Signed FB Roosevelt Nix to a new four-year deal.
02/09/2018 – Signed OL B.J. Finney to a one-year contract extension.
02/01/2018 – Signed P Jordan Berry to a one-year contract extension.
01/31/2018 – Signed OL Matt Feiler to a one-year contract extension.
01/29/2018 – Signed WR Trey Griffey, WR Tevin Jones and RB James Summers to Reserve/Future contracts.
01/19/2018 – Signed S Malik Golden, LB Darnell Leslie and P Matt Wile to Reserve/Future contracts.
01/18/2018 – Signed DE Casey Sayles to Reserve/Future contract.
01/16/2018 – Signed CB Mike Hilton to a one-year contract extension.
01/16/2018 – Signed DE Lavon Hooks, LB Keith Kelsey, WR Justin Thomas and WR Marcus Tucker to Reserve/Future contracts.
01/15/2018 – Signed S Jordan Dangerfield, LB Matt Galambos, LB Farrington Huguenin, TE Jake McGee, CB Dashaun Phillips to Reserve/Future contracts.
01/15/2018 – Signed TE Xavier Grimble and LS Kameron Canaday to one-year contract extensions.
So numbers and projected amounts for this salary cap update were acquired from overthecap.com, the NFLPA and former NFL agent Joel Corry. All three are great salary cap data resources.
