The Pittsburgh Steelers signed safety Minkah Fitzpatrick to a lucrative contract extension on Wednesday that now makes him the highest-paid player in the NFL at his position. On Thursday morning, more details of his new deal surfaced from Field Yates of ESPN.
According to Yates, Fitzpatrick received a $17.5 million signing bonus as part of his extension. His new base salary is reportedly $4 million. Yates goes on to report that Fitzpatrick’s new cap charge for 2022 is $8,124,235, which would be a decrease of $2,487,675 from what it was previously scheduled to be. Fitzpatrick was previously on the books to have a cap charge of $10.612 million after having his fifth-year option picked up over a year ago.
Now, there does seem to be some missing info here as the numbers that Yates provided add up to just a $7.5 million cap charge for 2022. Why? Well, the proration amount for 2022 on $17.5 million over five years would be $3.5 million. When added to a $4 million base, that would produce a 2022 cap charge of $7.5 million.
Ahead of Fitzpatrick’s contract getting done, the Steelers were $20,325,877 under the cap. If the cap savings listed by Yates are correct, the team would then be $22,813,642 under the cap, pending the signing of first-round draft pick Kenny Pickett.
There are obviously more details yet to come related to Fitzpatrick’s new deal, and I will pass them along as soon as the become available. I will highlight any previous mistakes, if any, along the way.
UPDATE: Per former NFL agent Joel Corry of CBS Sports, there’s a 17th game roster bonus of $624,235. Fitzpatrick was going to get the $624,235 as a 17th game check game if he played out the option year. It would have been classified as benefit instead of salary cap charge.
