The Pittsburgh Steelers announced the signing of quarterback Mitch Trubisky to a two-year contract extension on Friday, a deal that resulted in his 2023 salary cap charge decreasing by $4,613,334. That extension announcement came just hours after my latest salary cap update but with there being significant savings, I will go ahead and update the team’s situation heading into the weekend.
While we are still waiting for the Steelers to report the contract numbers for newly re-signed quarterback Mason Rudolph to the NFLPA, those reportedly leaked on Friday. Additionally, several other signings the Steelers have made, which include four of their 2023 draft picks, are still outstanding. That said, we have a particularly good idea as to what those cap charges will look like.
The Steelers also signed a few lower-salaried players that are outstanding on the NFLPA sheet. Even so, none of those deals are expected to impact the team’s current Rule of 51. If they do impact the Rule of 51, it won’t be much.
With all moves up until Friday night projected out, I have the Steelers $15,307,431 under the cap with three draft picks still unsigned. If you want to figure in those three draft picks after top 51 roster displacement, the team should be roughly $12,022,369 under the cap right now with 89 players on the active roster and one other, defensive lineman Renell Wren, on the Reserve/Injured list.
As the table below shows, there are more forthcoming cap costs that the team must absorb this offseason. That data, however, does not account for a possible contract extension for outside linebacker Alex Highsmith. That’s nearly guaranteed to happen. When and if it does, his 2023 cap charge will increase by several million as a byproduct.
The Steelers will also create some salary cap space during their final round of roster cuts in September as surely not all 51 players in the current top 51 will make the initial 53-man roster.
The Steelers will likely need to restructure the contract of outside linebacker T.J. Watt during the offseason. That said, we are now in the territory of them possibly not needing to do a full restructuring of his deal. We’ll see if they have any more notable signings moving forward that will use a noticeable amount of salary cap space. In the meantime, the Steelers sit comfortably under the cap ahead of OTAs getting underway next week in Pittsburgh.
