The Pittsburgh Steelers signed three unrestricted agents, wide receiver Justin Hunter, running back Stevan Ridley and safety Nat Berhe, to one-year contracts last week and now we know the details of those three deals now that they’ve been filed with the NFLPA.
According to former NFL agent Joel Corry, Berhe’s one-year contract that he signed with the Steelers totals out at $880,000 and includes a $90,000 signing bonus. Corry also told me that Berhe’s cap charge is currently set at $880,000 and that he isn’t quite sure why it is not showing as a minimum salary benefit contract in the NFLPA database. This will be interesting to watch the next few days to see if the NFLPA corrects that.
As for the one-year contract that Hunter signed with the Steelers, Corry tells me his is a minimum salary benefit contract that includes a $30,000 signing bonus and a $50,000 roster bonus. Hunter’s cap charge in 2018, according to Corry, is $710,000 as a result of it being a minimum salary benefit contract. In short, the Steelers only stand to have $30,000 in dead money should Hunter ultimately not make the 53-man roster this year.
As for Ridley, his one-year contract is also a minimum salary befit deal, according to Corry, and he did not receive a signing bonus. His contract is exactly like the one that fellow Steelers running back Fitzgerald Toussaint signed a few weeks ago.
According to these numbers provided by Corry, along with the NFLPA salary cap numbers as of Tuesday morning, the Steelers used all of $555,000 in available salary cap space in signing Berhe, Hunter and Ridley. Currently, the Steelers are $1,991,880 under the cap with 69 total players now under contract. The three offensive linemen the team signed on Monday have not been accounted for yet by the NFLPA but with that said, those three salaries aren’t expected to crack the Rule of 51 and thus shouldn’t eat up any additional salary cap space.
Special thanks to Corry for the details used in this post.
Nat Berhe Contract
| YEAR | BASE SALARY | SIGNING BONUS | ROSTER BONUS | CAP CHARGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | $790,000 | $90,000 | $0 | $880,000 |
Justin Hunter Contract
| YEAR | BASE SALARY | SIGNING BONUS | ROSTER BONUS | CAP CHARGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | $790,000 | $30,000 | $50,000 | $710,000 |
Stevan Ridley Contract
| YEAR | BASE SALARY | SIGNING BONUS | ROSTER BONUS | CAP CHARGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | $790,000 | $0 | $0 | $630,000 |
