The 2020 NFL league year is now officially underway and as expected, the Pittsburgh Steelers have very minimal salary cap space to work with right now barring any new contract restructures being reported. Below is a Rule of 51 snapshot at where I estimate the Steelers to be at cap space-wise following all the current reports being accounted for.
The salary cap snapshot below includes the restructured contracts already being reported. Those players are quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, kicker Chris Boswell, tight end Vance McDonald, cornerback Joe Haden and cornerback Steven Nelson. I am working under the assumption that all five of the restructures were done to the max amounts until I can confirm otherwise.
The data below also includes the contract terminations of outside linebacker Anthony Chickillo, inside linebacker Mark Barron, fullback Roosevelt Nix and wide receiver Johnny Holton. Additionally, the second-round restricted tenders given to tackle Matt Feiler and cornerback Mike Hilton are included in this snapshot in addition to the non-exclusive franchise tag given to outside linebacker Bud Dupree.
Finally, the data bellow also includes the new contracts of fullback Derek Watt, tackle Zach Banner, and long snapper Kameron Canaday. I’ve also accounted for the retirement of guard Ramon Foster and inside linebacker Ryan Shazier being placed on the Reserve/Retired list.
All up-to-date dead money should be properly accounted for as well.
The 2019 rollover space has been confirmed by Joel Corry of CBS Sports as has the cap credit amount below. Additionally, I have the offseason workout bonus placeholder amount entered but that’s just a speculated amount, which is the 2019 number that was used.
After all the numbers are run, I have the Steelers at $6,310,641 under the salary cap as Wednesday starts to wind down. While that isn’t a lot, the team can still fit in several very inexpensive contracts into that number thanks to how the top-51 roster displacement works. Watt’s contract is a great example of that.
Sure, the Steelers might still decide to restructure another contract or two. Additionally, potential contract extensions for defensive end Cameron Heyward and Dupree should both provide some nice cap relief when and if they get done.
The Steelers 2020 draft class is only scheduled to use up a little less than $2 million in available cap space. The team will obviously need to ultimately afford a full practice squad and 52nd and 53rd player but that work is well down the road. The team will also probably want to go into the regular season with around $7 million or so in available salary cap space to use for injury replacements. Yes, meat on the bone still for sure.
Honestly, it’s pretty much business as usual for the Steelers this offseason outside of them doing a few more contract restructures than normal. They’ll likely add a few more outside free agents on the cheap in the next two weeks and might even re-sign one or two of their own such as tight end Nick Vannett and safety Jordan Dangerfield.
The below data not to be considered official in any way but it should be pretty close to the actual.
Happy New League Year to all of yinz!
| Projected Steelers 2020 Salary Cap Space (3/18/2020) | |
|---|---|
| Contracts | 62 |
| NFL Salary Cap | $198,200,000 |
| Team Carryover | $3,081,389 |
| Team Adjustment | $92,235 |
| Effective Cap | $201,373,624 |
| OTA Workout Debt | $676,800 |
| Top 51 Rule Contracts | $185,394,721 |
| Practice Squad | $0 |
| Injured Reserve | $0 |
| Dead Money | $8,991,462 |
| Estimated Cap Space | $6,310,641 |
