The Pittsburgh Steelers have now agreed to trade G Kevin Dotson to the Los Angeles Rams as of Sunday night and assuming he passes his physical, that deal will become official. There are some small salary cap ramifications as a result of this trade that barring any additional unknown details at this point, will result in the Steelers clearing a little bit of 2023 salary cap space.
For starters, Dotson was scheduled to earn $2.743 million in 2023 and that was a result of him qualifying for a Proven Performance Escalator raise in his first three seasons in the NFL with the Steelers. By trading Dotson, the Steelers will have a dead money charge in 2023 of $164,703, which is the outstanding prorated portion of his original signing bonus.
Assuming that the Rams are taking on all of Dotson’s $2.743 million salary, the Steelers will effectively clear $1.803 million in 2023 cap space in their pre-cutdown day Rule of 51 after roster displacement takes place. The displacement salary amount for Dotson in the current Rule of 51 is $940,000.
The Steelers obviously still have a lot of roster trimming yet to do between now and 4:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Their entire cutdown process figures to clear a little more 2023 salary cap space on top of what the team should save by trading away Dotson.
