The Pittsburgh Steelers will start their 2024 training camp next week. If that’s not enough to get you excited, seven weeks from today, the Steelers will open their 2024 regular season on the road. With the Steelers recently adding to their offseason roster in the form of signing ILB Tyler Matakevich, today is a perfect time to update the team’s salary cap situation.
As I mentioned a few days ago in a post, the one-year contract that Matakevich signed turned out to be a veteran benefit deal without any signing bonus or guaranteed money being included. Additionally, Matakevich’s 2024 salary cap charge of $985,000 didn’t even impact the Steelers’ Rule of 51 number, meaning that zero space was used in signing him.
As of this Sunday, ahead of training camp getting underway, the Steelers still remain $16,680,499 under the cap for 2024, per the NFLPA. This is pending the posting of the team’s total offseason workout payment amount, which should come in lower than this year’s placeholder amount of $907,200. The Steelers currently have 91 players under contract for the 2024 season and obviously that number will shrink tremendously by the start of the regular season.
While the Steelers currently have quite a bit of 2024 salary cap space to work with, it’s important to remember that a good chunk of it is essentially already spoken for. The team must allocate at least $1.59 million in additional salary cap space to accommodate a 52nd and 53rd player on their roster, as only the top 51 are counting right now. Roughly another $4 million in 2024 salary cap space will be allocated for the team’s initial practice squad.
Roughly another $2 million in salary cap space might be used to accommodate replacing players who need to start the 2024 season on the team’s Reserve/Injured list. Finally, the Steelers will likely want to have roughly $6 million in available salary cap space to start the 2024 regular season. All of those allocations add up to $14,497,200, which is obviously a good chunk of their available $16,680,499 in space.
The NFLPA has also yet to reveal the official injury settlement amounts for two former Steelers players, WR Keilahn Harris and CB Luq Barcoo. Those two injury settlement amounts, which will ultimately be charged against the Steelers’ 2024 salary cap, will likely total right around $165,000.
Obviously, the Steelers have the ability to create more salary cap space, should the need for it arise, in the next 49 days. Should they restructure another contract between now and the start of the 2024 regular season, S Minkah Fitzpatrick is the most likely next candidate for such a move. Fully restructuring Fitzpatrick’s contract would create an additional $8,916,667 in 2024 salary cap space.
The Steelers are still very likely to sign a player or three to contract extensions in the next seven weeks. For example, a contract extension for TE Pat Freiermuth in the next 49 days will likely increase his current salary cap charge of $1,918,057 by at least $2 million and possibly as much as $3 million. Conversely, should DT Cameron Heyward sign a contract extension in the next 49 days, his 2024 salary cap charge of $22,406,250 is likely to decrease quite a bit and perhaps even by as much as $8 to $9 million.
But wait, there’s another possible contract extension that could plausibly happen in the next seven weeks. While most people view it as very unlikely, a contract extension for RB Najee Harris in the next 49 days would likely result in his 2024 salary cap charge of $4,151,460 increasing by around $1.8 million.
Will the Steelers trade for or sign a significant earning player in the next 49 days? While a move like that is plausible and not totally out of the question, it certainly is beginning to appear less likely to happen by the day. Sure, the Steelers are likely to add another player or two in the coming 49 days, but even so, I think such moves wouldn’t require a significant cash or cap allocation.
In summation and all told, the fact that the Steelers sit more than $16 million under the salary cap right ahead of training camp getting underway is great news for the team. They have tons of cap flexibility at this point of the offseason, even though their effective salary cap space at this point is more like $2,183,299. The next 49 days will be quite entertaining as there’s sure to be at least one contract extension and possibly a few more signings. We might even see a contract restructuring take place in these next seven weeks, which will start flying by much faster now.
