While it has not yet been made official l, the Pittsburgh Steelers will reportedly part ways with veteran cornerback Arthur Maulet soon. With that transaction seemingly destined to happen, and with the Steelers about to start their 2023 rookie minicamp on Friday, now is another great time to look at the team’s salary cap situation.
For starters, the Steelers recently signed cornerback Chandon Sullivan to a one-year contract and while that was indeed a veteran benefit deal, he did receive the maximum signing bonus permitted, $152,500. Sullivan’s cap charge for 2023 will officially be $1,092,500.
As for the forthcoming release of Maulet, the Steelers won’t clear considerable 2023 salary cap space as a result of the move. Maulet was scheduled to earn $1.79 million in 2023. Additionally, he had $500,000 in prorated signing bonus money on the books for 2023 as well. That $500,000 will become dead money in 2023. The Steelers will, however, clear $850,000 in 2023 salary cap space after top 51 roster displacement takes place following the official release of Maulet.
The NFL has yet to show the signings of the Steelers seven undrafted free agents. Those will likely become official this weekend when the team begins its annual rookie minicamp. Additionally, none of the team’s seven draft picks have signed their rookie contracts yet. Perhaps four or five of them will do so over the weekend, as that’s usually the case. For now, none of those 14 players have hit the NFLPA database.
Pending any rookie signings, and accounting for the recent signing of Sullivan and the forthcoming release of Maulet, the Steelers are now $7,901,819 under the cap. That amount includes the annual NFLPA workout bonus placeholder amount of $849,600, which has yet to be applied on their salary cap page.
Below is the updated table of salary cap data as of this Wednesday afternoon and, as usual, it includes projected future costs the team will incur before Week 1 of the 2023 regular season. Additionally, a predicted full contract restructuring of outside linebacker T.J. Watt is included in the table to show how the team is likely to create additional salary cap space later in the summer.
The Steelers are likely to part ways with a few more players currently in their Rule of 51 prior to Week 1. Those transactions should free up small bits of salary cap space, after displacement takes place, in the process.
It is important to remember that the Steelers could very well wind up signing outside linebacker Alex Highsmith to a lucrative contract extension prior to Week 1. Should that indeed happen, Highsmith’s current 2023 cap charge amount of $2,951,073 will likely increase by roughly $3.5 million or so.
Next week, I should be able to provide another 2023 salary cap update after the team signs its entire undrafted class and several members of its draft class.
