After the Pittsburgh Steelers lost starting QB Kenny Pickett to his ankle injury a few weeks ago, I wrote about how the following few games might be a determining factor for the future of backup QB Mitch Trubisky past the 2023 season. Well, with two starts now made by Trubisky since I wrote that post, I think we now have our answer, especially with Trubisky falling to third on the depth chart behind QB Mason Rudolph. So, what does that all potentially mean from a financial standpoint? I will attempt to answer that question as simply as possible.
For starters, let it be known that Trubisky isn’t going anywhere until after the 2023 season. Because his base salary for 2023 is the NFL veteran minimum, there’s no real savings to be had by cutting Trubisky now. Let the record also show that Trubisky will have been paid $14.285 million as a member of the Steelers for the 2022 and 2023 seasons. That certainly should feel like a lot based on what the team got out of him these two seasons.
Now, even though the Steelers signed Trubisky to a two-year contract extension well before the 2023 regular season got underway that doesn’t mean that the team can’t make a break from him early in 2024. In fact, that should now be the expected plan.
Trubisky is scheduled to earn a base salary of $4.25 million in 2024. Additionally, he is due a $1 million roster bonus on the third day of the 2024 NFL league year in March. Jettisoning Trubisky prior to paying him that roster bonus is the cleanest possible breakup point for the Steelers, and such a move would save $5.25 million in cash in 2024.
But nobody pays attention to cash savings though, right? What about salary cap savings? Well, jettisoning Trubisky prior to paying him his March roster bonus would result in the Steelers having a dead money charge in his name of $4,613,334. With Trubisky currently scheduled to have a 2024 salary cap charge of $7,556,666, cutting him would result in a savings of $2,943,332 prior to his displacement in the offseason Rule of 51. A rookie base salary in 2024 is $795,000, so after displacement, the real salary cap savings achieved would be roughly $2.148 million.
With those financials out of the way, I thought now might also be a suitable time to readdress why I think the Steelers even extended Trubisky’s contract back in May. Personally, I think they strong-armed Trubisky into doing that extension.
Prior to signing that two-year extension, Trubisky was due to earn $8 million in 2023 and his salary cap charge was scheduled to be $10.625 million. Now, as part of Trubisky signing the two-year extension, he did not receive any additional new money in 2023, and on top of that, he did not receive any future guaranteed money in the 2024 and 2025 years. In short, all the Steelers did was give Trubisky $6.92 million of the $8 million base salary he was scheduled to earn in 2023 as a signing bonus and then lock him up for two additional years. He probably had to agree to that extension or be cut, quite honestly.
That no-new-money contract extension that Trubisky signed still resulted in him earning that same $8 million in 2023 with the main result being that his salary cap charge dropped to $6,011,666, a decrease of $4,613,334. It was more of a win for the Steelers from a 2023 salary cap management standpoint than it was for Trubisky and his job security.
About the only positive thing that Trubisky got out of signing that two-year extension last May was the fact that the Steelers have to decide on whether to give him a $1 million roster bonus in March 2024. Basically, it forces the Steelers to make a calculated decision on Trubisky early in the offseason instead of much later in the summer. In short, the only win for Trubisky coming out of that extension is the fact that he would potentially be a street free agent at the start of the new league year as opposed to later in the summer of 2024. See why it looks like he was strong-armed into signing that extension?
So, with all of that summed up, and barring something unexpected happening such as Trubisky agreeing to a huge pay cut prior to March, we can probably expect him to be released prior to that $1 million roster bonus coming due. It really should be as simple at this point with Trubisky failing out of favor with the Steelers these last few weeks due to his play on the field.
