The Pittsburgh Steelers have now established their initial 53-man roster for the 2023 season and while it isn’t likely to stay as it is right now before Week One gets here a week from Sunday, I can at least pass along a quick look at the team’s current salary situation as 4:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
Currently, the Steelers 53-man active roster has cap charges totaling $202,795,686. On top of that, the team also has four players still on their Reserve/Injured list that now count against the salary cap. Those four players are: CB Cory Trice Jr., DL Renell Wren, RB Alfonzo Graham, and ILB Chapelle Russell. Their total charges are $1,896,109.
The Steelers have reached injury settlements this offseason with four players: WR Ja’Marcus Bradley, WR Cody White, WR Hakeem Butler, and CB Duke Dawson. Butler’s amount is the only one that has yet to be reported but it’s likely the same amount as White’s. For now, we’ll assume the grand total of those four players is $269,445.
As far as dead money goes after the Tuesday roster moves were made, that amount now sits at $13,904,127.
When factoring in everything listed above, and that includes a projected injury settlement amount for Butler, the Steelers currently sit $9,714,481 under the salary cap as of Tuesday night.
Now, the Steelers still need to establish a 16-man practice squad and that amount will come in at around $4 million, likely a little less. The team must also decide how much salary cap space they want to have to start the season. That in-season fund amount will decide whether the team needs to partially restructure the contract of OLB T.J. Watt, who is the likeliest candidate. There are other candidates, however, if they want to leave Watt’s contract alone (Diontae Johnson, James Daniels, Cameron Heyward).
This offseason, I have used a $9 million in-season free cap space amount as an estimated placeholder amount for 2023. Should, however, that amount wind up being $5 million or less, the Steelers shouldn’t need to restructure the contract of Watt in the next several days. We will get our answer to Watt’s situation by a week from Sunday. Just to note: last year, the Steelers did a partial contract restructure after their final 53-man roster was finalized.
The Steelers current 53-man roster obviously isn’t likely to remain the same this next week, especially with two punters included. That said, any roster shuffling that will happen in the next week shouldn’t use up too much salary cap space.
In closing, the biggest variable at this point is the amount of free salary cap space that GM Omar Khan wants to enter the 2023 regular season with. That variable will decide if Watt’s contract needs touching for a second consecutive year.
