With these few weeks of July being the slowest ones of the offseason, I thought now would be a perfect time to take a detailed look at the dead cap situation of the Pittsburgh Steelers for 2024 ahead of training camp getting underway at the end of the month.
Recently, several readers asked for a detailed breakdown of the Steelers’ 2024 dead money charges by player. That dead money total currently sits at $24,381,069. Below is my breakdown of the amounts, reasons, and more by player.
Listed first in this post is a table of the dead money charges by player as of July 9, sorted by most to least. Below that chart is a short but detailed explanation of the dead money charge for each player or group of players.
Diontae Johnson – The Steelers traded Johnson to the Carolina Panthers on May 12, just a few days ahead of his 2024 roster bonus of $3 million being due. Johnson being traded resulted in $5,833,334 of his remaining signing bonus proration for the 2024 season being turned into dead money for this season. Johnson had received a signing bonus of $17.5 million as part of the two-year contract extension that he signed with the Steelers in August of 2022.
Mitch Trubisky – The Steelers terminated Trubisky’s contract on February 12. That resulted in a dead money charge of $4,613,334 for the 2024 season. That dead money was the remaining prorated amount of the $6.92 million signing bonus given to Trubisky in May of 2023 as part of his agreeing to a two-year extension that included no new money for last season. The contract termination happened before June 1, and that’s why the 2025 prorated portion escalated into 2024 instead of being deferred a year.
Kenny Pickett – The Steelers traded Pickett, the team’s first-round selection in the 2022 NFL Draft, to the Philadelphia Eagles on March 16. That deal required that the remaining amount of Pickett’s rookie signing bonus, $3,705,602, become dead money in 2024 as the move happened before June 1. Pickett’s rookie contract, which he signed in 2022, included a signing bonus of $7,411,204. In short, the final two years, or half of that full signing bonus, became dead money for the Steelers the moment they traded Pickett away.
Chukwuma Okorafor – The Steelers terminated Okorafor’s contract on February 20, resulting in a dead money charge of $3,083,334 for the 2024 season. That dead money was the remaining prorated amount of the $9.25 million signing bonus given to Okorafor in March of 2022 as part of his agreeing to a new three-year contract. Okorafor was due a $4 million roster bonus on March 20, so he never saw that money with his contract being terminated a month prior to that date.
Patrick Peterson – The Steelers terminated the contract of Peterson on March 8. That resulted in a dead money charge of $2,925,000 for the 2024 season. That dead money was the remaining prorated amount of the $5.85 million signing bonus given to Peterson in March of 2023 as part of him agreeing to a two-year contract in free agency.
Allen Robinson II – The Steelers terminated the contract of Robinson on March 8 and that resulted in a dead money charge of $1,917,500 for the 2024 season. As part of the trade details with the Los Angeles Rams last offseason, the Steelers were to pay $5 million of Robinson’s 2023 base salary due to him. The Steelers gave Robinson $3.835 million of that, transferring $5 million due to him in 2023 in the form of a signing bonus after he arrived via the trade. For cap purposes, it created a proration over two years.
Mason Cole – The Steelers terminated the contract of Cole on February 23 and that resulted in a dead money charge of $1,521,668 for the 2024 season. That dead money was the remaining prorated amount of the $4.565 million signing bonus given to Cole in March of 2022 as part of him agreeing to a new three-year contract in free agency. Cole was due a $1.5 million roster bonus on March 18, so he never saw that money with his contract being terminated nearly a month prior to that date.
Keanu Neal – The Steelers terminated the contract of Neal with a failed physical designation on March 7. That resulted in a dead money charge of $460,000 for the 2024 season. That dead money was the remaining prorated amount of the $920,00 signing bonus given to Neal in March of 2023 as part of him agreeing to a two-year contract in free agency.
Kendrick Green – The Steelers traded Green, the team’s third-round selection in the 2021 NFL Draft, to the Houston Texans on August 29. With that deal happening after June 1 last year, half of Green’s remaining signing bonus from his rookie contract carried over into 2024 as dead money. That prorated amount of $226,502 was one-quarter of the $906,008 signing bonus given to Green when he signed his rookie contract in 2021.
Tre Norwood – The Steelers waived Norwood, a former seventh-round draft pick of theirs, last August. With that move happening after June 1 of last year, the final year of his two remaining prorated signing bonus amounts deferred as dead money until 2024. That amount of $23,610 was one-quarter of the $94,440 signing bonus paid to Norwood when he signed his four-year rookie contract in 2021.
Pressley Harvin III – The Steelers waived Harvin, a former seventh-round draft pick, on February 12. That waiving of Harvin resulted in the final prorated year of his rookie signing bonus becoming dead money. That dead money amount of $20,183 was one-quarter of the $80,732 signing bonus given to Harvin after he signed his rookie contract in 2021.
Tanner Morgan, David Perales, James Nyamwaya, Monte Pottebaum, Jordan Byrd, B.T. Potter – These six players were all part of the Steelers 2023 undrafted free agent class. Pottebaum suddenly retired on July 30, and the other five players ultimately failed to make the team’s 53-man roster last summer. Each were waived. All six signed three-year contracts. With the one retirement and the waiving of five others coming after June 1, it caused two-thirds of the signing bonus amounts of each player to defer over to 2024 as dead money.
