With the NFL Scouting Combine just one week away, where a lot of wheeling and dealing will be done, and free agency opening just a few weeks later, the NFL officially set the 2024 salary cap at $255.4 million, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.
Last season, the salary cap in the NFL sat at $224.8 million, so the cap is increasing more than $30 million, which is due to result of full payment of all amounts advanced by clubs and deferred to players during the pandemic, per Pelissero.
That $255.4 million comes in roughly $13 million over the projected salary cap for NFL teams ahead of the 2024 season. That is great news for a number of teams that are currently over the cap and now won’t need to get under that $242.5 million projection for the upcoming season.
Along with the $255.4 million salary cap, the league has an additional $74 million-per-club payment for player benefits, according to Pelissero.
Prior to the NFL’s announcement Friday, the Steelers appeared poised to roll over $2,340,191 in unused salary cap space from the 2023 season, which would have put the Steelers’ adjusted salary cap amount at $244,840,191 based on projections. It’s unclear how that lines up now with the $255.4 million salary cap set for the Steelers. Dave Bryan will have a Steelers salary cap update at some point in the coming days.
In early February prior to releasing QB Mitch Trubisky, punter Pressley Harvin III and offensive tackle Chukwuma Okorafor, the Steelers were sitting at $261,729,564 for the top 51 players on their roster. After cutting Harvin, Trubisky and Okorafor, and after top-51 roster displacement, the Steelers cleared $10,123,332 in 2024 cap space.
We’ll see how the salary cap looks for the Steelers in the days ahead once Dave Bryan works his magic, but for right now it appears that the Steelers are in good shape.
