The Pittsburgh Steelers have been quite busy since their 2023 mandatory minicamp wrapped up a few weeks ago. Since the long wait before the start of the team’s annual training camp got underway, the Steelers have made several transactions with of a few of those being the signings of two more 2023 draft picks, tackle Broderick Jones and defensive tackle Keeanu Benton.
Additionally, the Steelers have since waived two veterans in wide receiver Anthony Miller and safety Scott Nelson and signed inside linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski and long snapper Rex Sunahara. With those recent transactions now in the books, we can provide an updated look at the Steelers 2023 salary cap situation on this final Sunday of June.
As of Sunday morning, the Steelers are officially $13,668,261 under the salary cap, pending the NFLPA implementing the annual workout bonus placeholder amount of $849,600, which they are way behind doing this offseason. With that charge implemented for, the Steelers are $12,818,661 under the cap with one member of their 2023 draft class, cornerback Joey Porter Jr., still unsigned.
Once Porter does sign his four-year rookie contract, the offset of that inked deal should use roughly another $808,790 in 2023 salary cap space, based on how the team’s Rule of 51 currently sits on this Sunday. So, effectively, the Steelers are currently, $12,009,871 under the cap on this last Sunday of June, if we are talking about real-time numbers.
While $12 million seems like quite a bit of salary cap space, it’s important to remember that the team has several forthcoming costs that they must account for by the start of the 2023 regular season. Those forthcoming costs are fairly predictive overall, and they revolve around a 52nd and 53rd player (est. $1,500,000), a full 16-player practice squad (est. $4,000,000), a Reserve/Injured list (est. $3,000,000) and an in-season move buffer amount ($9,000,000). Currently, those fairly predictive forthcoming costs total out at $17.5 million. And when applied to the team’s effective current salary cap space amount of $12,009,871, the team is essentially $5,490,129 over the cap as of June 25, if we are looking into the future. That amount is shown in the table below.
Now, the Steelers are likely to still have quite a bit of juggling prior to Week 1 of the 2023 regular season when it comes to their top 51 salaries. In short, the team is likely to clear a little more salary cap space by Week 1 as part of their initial 53-man active roster construction. Players such as defensive tackle Montravius Adams, guard Kevin Dotson, wide receiver Gunner Olszewski and safety Miles Killebrew are just a few notable examples of ones not necessarily guaranteed to make the 53-man roster come Week 1 in lieu of cheaper players being retained.
It’s important to also remember that the Steelers are still likely to restructure the contract of outside linebacker T.J. Watt closer to the end of the offseason. While the team might not need to ultimately do a full restructuring of Watt’s contract come Week 1, there is an opportunity to clear as much as $12,613,334 in 2023 salary cap space in doing just that.
The Steelers are also still expected to sign outside linebacker Alex Highsmith to a contract extension this offseason as well. He’s currently slated to count $2,951,073 against the salary cap in 2023 and an extension could raise that amount to right around $6,458,073, for an increase of roughly $3.507 million.
In closing when it comes to this late June salary cap update of the 2023 Steelers, they are right on track to where I thought they might be at this time of the offseason. The main unknowns at this point of the offseason, which is the case every offseason as June comes to a close, revolve around final roster setting, contract extension outcomes and last-minute restructures.
