With the Pittsburgh Steelers about to start their 2023 regular season, I wanted to pass along three players on the team’s roster that will need to be watched closely throughout the 17-game slate. Why only three? Well, because these three all have pricey March roster bonuses due to them right after the start of the 2024 league year.
In short, these three players need to have solid 2023 seasons if they want to remain on the Steelers offseason roster on past the spring and into the summer. Two of the three players signed new deals back in March while the third one signed his current contract in March of 2022. Let’s now march ahead and look at the three players
T Chukwuma Okorafor
Let’s start with Okorafor, who is now in the second year of the three-year, $29.25 million contract he signed in March of 2021. This 2023 season will certainly decide if he sees that third and final year of his deal and quite honestly, it should be pretty cut and dry as far as the decision the Steelers will need to make on him in the middle of March. Like this past offseason, Okorafor has a March roster bonus of $4 million due in 2024. March 22nd, to be more specific. He’s also scheduled to earn another $4.75 million in a 2024 base salary.
Should the Steelers decide that they need to part ways with Okorafor after the 2023 season, such a parting would surely happen before that $4 million roster bonus is paid to him. Cutting Okorafor would free up $8.75 million in 2024 salary cap space prior to March 22nd of 2024. He needs to play well in 2023.
DT Larry Ogunjobi
I was a bit surprised to see the Steelers re-sign Ogunjobi for average yearly value they gave him after the 2022 season that he had. That noted, it’s not like the Steelers can’t get out of the Ogunjobi deal next March should he not trend back more toward the player he was in 2021. Ogunjobi signed a three-year, $28.7 million contract this past March and he received a $10.6 million signing bonus as part of that. In short, he will earn $12 million total in 2023.
Ogunjobi, however, is due a March 2024 roster bonus of $4.75 million. He’s also due a 2024 base salary of $5 million, so $9.75 million in total if he stays past the third day of the 2024 NFL league year in March. Should Ogunjobi only duplicate the 2022 season that he had, he’s sure to be gone before that roster bonus is due. Such a move would free up $6,216,666 in 2024 salary cap space, if not designated a post-June 1 cut.
CB Patrick Peterson
Is there a chance that Peterson could be one and done in Pittsburgh after signing a two-year, $14 million contract this past offseason? Absolutely. He’s yet another player that a decision will need to be made next March. Peterson is due to earn a $3 million roster bonus on March 17 of next year to go along with an unguaranteed base salary of $3.85 million.
While paying Peterson $6.85 million in 2024 doesn’t sound like a lot in the grand scheme of things, it could still wind up being too much if he doesn’t play above-the-line in his first season in Pittsburgh. To his credit, Peterson hasn’t missed many games during his stellar NFL career, just nine in total, if you can believe it. That said, he certainly can’t afford to miss many at all in 2023. He did have five interceptions in 2022 and another four or five in 2023 should be enough to secure that last season in Pittsburgh.
