The 2022 NFL regular season will get underway on Thursday night and on Sunday the Pittsburgh Steelers will have their first game on the road against the Cincinnati Bengals. On this momentous day, it’s now a wonderful time to look at where the Steelers sit from a salary cap perspective after tracking their course all throughout the offseason.
The Steelers currently sit $8,600,587 under the cap as of Thursday morning and that number is probably unlikely to change prior to Sunday’s Week 1 game. That number is also quite different from $9,861,987 listed on the NFLPA site and that’s because the site is behind a few days in transactions and also due to them not yet flipping away from the Rule of 51.
The Steelers recently had a few long-awaited cap-related transactions happen that I have been projecting and waiting for. For starters, the team recently restructured the contract of outside linebacker T.J. Watt to free up $6.75 million in 2022 salary cap space. Additionally, two outstanding injury settlement amounts belonging to outside linebacker Tuzar Skipper ($80,000) and running back Master Teague III ($47,778) have now hit the cap.
The Steelers also placed outside linebacker Hamilcar Rashed Jr. on the Practice Squad Injured list on Wednesday and signed wide receiver Jaquarii Roberson to fill his spot on the 16-man active unit. That move used up another $207,000 in salary cap space.
As mentioned, all the above outlined moves have been accounted for now.
I wrote all offseason about how I expected the team to enter the 2022 regular season with a $9 million buffer in salary cap space. Well, I just missed the number as it sits at $8,600,587. The offseason went pretty much as I expected it to go as far as salary cap usage.
If you would like a quick breakdown of where the cap dollars are spent for 2022, I have one below for you:
53-man Active Roster Amount: $166,953,576
16-man Active Practice Squad Amount: $3,614,400
Regular Reserve/Injured Amount: $3,058,584
Practice Squad Injured List Amount: $207,000
Dead Money Amount (Includes Injury Settlements): $32,995,707
Offseason Workout Bonus Amount: $608,732
So, what’s next? Really just following how much of the $8,600,587 in available salary cap space is used throughout the regular season on practice squad elevations and injury replacements. That amount might total around $5 million at maximum. Whatever the Steelers have left over in unused 2022 salary cap space they will roll over into 2023.
With 2022 now wrapped up, I will post my first look at the Steelers’ 2023 salary cap space in a few days.
