The Pittsburgh Steelers certainly have had a busy first week of the 2024 NFL league year. Not only have they already signed five outside unrestricted free agents, but they have also traded for two other players while trading away two other players. Additionally, the Steelers have re-signed three of their own unrestricted free agents as of Sunday morning. While there are still some unreported contract numbers out there for a few of the recent deals, I now have enough information to work with so that I can project where the Steelers sit from a salary cap perspective.
As of Sunday morning, the only exact contract numbers we seem to be awaiting belong to S DeShon Elliott and WR Van Jefferson. Even so, it’s easy to ballpark what the 2024 Steelers’ salary cap charges for both are. Additionally, we still are awaiting word on what, if anything, will be done to the contract of CB Donte Jackson, one of the two players that the Steelers have traded for so far this offseason.
Based on all the information we have up until this point and including the projected numbers of the two unreported players, the Steelers should now be roughly $10,630,998 under the cap when it comes to real-time and their Rule of 51 and with all moves made as of Sunday morning and the time of this post.
I must, however, reiterate that there are some approximations included in this update. Meaning, that $10,630,998 amount could be off on either side by just a little bit. The margin of error is likely $250,000 to either side. So, with that, the Steelers should be somewhere between $10,380,998 and $10,880,998 under the cap right now, pending whatever does or doesn’t happen with Jackson’s contract.
Currently, 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 being roughly $10,630,998 under the salary cap, that still leaves them plenty of room to continue to add 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 this offseason as we sit here today.
Now, while the Steelers are currently roughly $10,630,998 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 at some point during the offseason. The table breakdown above includes approximations of those forthcoming costs the Steelers will need to account for moving forward.
I think it’s also important to point out that there will ultimately be some “slop” in the Steelers current Rule of 51. Not all 51 players within it will ultimately make the Week One 53-man roster. In other words, a tiny bit of salary cap space is likely to be gained, or lost, due to the offset of all “slop” come Week One. That sort of thing and amount is obviously extremely hard to predict and especially as we sit here in the middle of March.
So, are the Steelers finished signing players? No. That said, I think the players they do sign moving forward will mostly be lower-level deals to minimum deals. The team has a history of signing a few players to veterans benefit deals and thus that should be the case once again this offseason. I could see two or three more players being signed to contracts with APYs of somewhere around $7 million as well.
New players accounted for in this update:
QB Russell Wilson
P Cameron Johnston
LB Patrick Queen
CB Donte Jackson
S DeShon Elliott
WR Van Jefferson
QB Justin Fields
Re-signed players accounted for in this update:
LS Christian Kuntz
S Miles Killebrew
DT Montravius Adams
Former players accounted for in this update:
WR Diontae Johnson
QB Kenny Pickett
