Monday got off to a great start for fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers and mainly due to some new details related to the contract of new CB Donte Jackson surfacing. On the heels of Jackson essentially taking a pay cut after arriving in Pittsburgh via a trade, let’s now look at where the team sits from a salary cap perspective.
For starters, Jackson’s reworked deal cleared an additional $4.5225 million in 2024 salary cap space. He essentially gave back his $4 million roster bonus, $200,000 workout bonus plus a little bit more. That makes the acquisition of him look a lot better now.
With Jackson’s deal now reworked, we can safely assume that the Steelers are roughly right around $15,153,498 under the salary cap. This is an approximation, however, as we are still awaiting exact details related to the new contracts signed by WR Van Jefferson and S DeShon Elliott. Those things noted, we have a very good idea of where the 2024 salary cap charges will come in with those two players.
The margin of error is likely $250,000 to either side. So, with that, the Steelers should be somewhere between $14,903,498 and $15,403,498 under the cap right now.
The Steelers have $24,381,069 in dead money on the books for the 2024 season and, yes, that is all accounted for in my projection when it comes to this particular update post.
With the Steelers now roughly $15,153,498 under the salary cap, that still leaves them plenty of room to continue adding some outside unrestricted free agents without having to create more space. Even so, and as I have mentioned several times already throughout the offseason, an extension for DT Cameron Heyward with no new first-year money and a contract restructuring of OLB Alex Highsmith could create as much as roughly $16.5 million in 2024 salary cap space. Both of those things are still likely to happen at some point later in the offseason as we sit here today.
Now, while the Steelers are roughly $15,153,498 under the cap, they still have more forthcoming costs to account for as the offseason progresses. As my best guess, those forthcoming costs total around $18.3 million. That amount, however, does not include a 2024 salary cap charge increase on TE Pat Freiermuth should the team sign him to a contract extension during the offseason. The table breakdown above includes approximations of those forthcoming costs the Steelers will need to account for moving forward.
The Steelers are in great shape salary cap wise at least when it comes to space needed to function during the remainder of the main portion of free agency, which runs through the first Monday after the 2024 NFL Draft takes place. The Steelers are likely to add several more free agents in the coming days and weeks. That said, I would not look for any additional free agents signed to have an APY amount greater than $9 million. The signings from here on out are likely to be modest ones with a few veteran benefit deals mixed in as well.
