Busy Monday Ends With Steelers Under Salary Cap

Monday was a very eventful day for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and it ended with them being under the salary cap with outside linebacker Bud Dupree wearing the franchise tag.

The Steelers placed the franchise tag on Dupree prior to the Monday noon deadline. That tag comes with a cost of $15.828 million and the team now has until July 15 to get a long-term contract worked out with the former first-round draft pick out of Kentucky.

The Steelers also terminated the contracts of three players on Monday as outside linebacker Anthony Chickillo, inside linebacker Mark Barron and wide receiver Johnny Holton were all released. The net impact of those three players being released was a gain on $9.245 million in salary cap space after Rule of 51 roster displacement took place.

Steelers guard Ramon Foster also retired on Monday and the team instantly placed him on the Reserve/Retired list. Foster’s retirement resulted in the Steelers gaining another $3.39 million 2020 salary cap space after top 51 roster displacement.

As expected, the Steelers are restructuring the contracts of several players ahead of the start of the 2020 league year and three were reported on Monday. Tight end Vance McDonald, kicker Chris Boswell and cornerback Joe Haden all reportedly have contract restructures done and while the official numbers related to those are not yet known, the three combined likely cleared another $6,251,667 in 2020 salary cap space.

Based on everything that transpired on Monday, I currently have the Steelers projected as being roughly $1.294 million under the salary cap heading into Tuesday the team still likely has a few more contract restructures on the way as well as a few restricted free agent tenders to issue. In short, expect Tuesday to be another busy day for the Steelers as they continue to prepare for the start of the 2020 NFL league year on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. EST.