While the NFLPA never actually applied the annual NFL workout bonus placeholder amount of $907,200 to all 32 teams to their public salary cap page this offseason, the perceived actual amount was indicated and charged off on Wednesday morning. In the case of the Pittsburgh Steelers, that amount appears to be $893,920.
As is usually the case, the charged offseason workout bonus amount did not equal the full expected placeholder amount. That’s the case every year. In case you’re curious, players receive up to $315 per day for every team offseason activity. You can read that section of the CBA below.
With the annual workout amounts for players now officially charged off, the Steelers are $15,856,579 under the cap with their Rule of 51 total as of Wednesday morning. That should remain the case on the heels of the team signing WR/KR T.J. Luther and DB Zyon Gilbert on Wednesday morning as neither player should crack the Rule of 51.
It should be noted that injury settlement amounts for several former Steelers players have still not hit the team’s cap total. Those usually don’t show up until Week 1. Additionally, the team figures to have at least two players, OLB David Perales and NT Breiden Fehoko, open the 2024 regular season on the Reserve/Injured list on split salaries. That list of players could obviously still grow in the coming weeks.
The Steelers also still need to account for several pre-regular season costs, such as a 52nd and 53rd player, a full 17-man practice squad, and an in-season buffer to work with. Those additional costs have a projected total of around $13.6 million, which would result in the team being $2,266,579 under the cap if they were to be applied today.
Should Steelers ILB Cole Holcomb indeed start the regular season on the Reserve/PUP list, the team would gain an additional $2.9 million in salary cap space due to his new split salary clause that was recently added to his contract. Once Steelers DB Cameron Sutton begins the regular season on the team’s Reserve/Suspended list, the team should begin to receive weekly salary cap credits until he is removed from that list.
The Steelers still could decide to restructure the contract of safety Minkah Fitzpatrick prior to the start of the 2024 regular season to offset the additional salary cap space that might be needed to cover the forthcoming additional budgeted costs and possible forthcoming contract extensions. A full restructuring of Fitzpatrick’s contract would clear $8,916,667 in 2024 salary cap space. There’s no guarantee at this time that the Steelers will ultimately need to restructure Fitzpatrick’s contract, however.
The Steelers obviously still have more than three full weeks remaining until the start of the 2024 regular season. All eyes are currently on the situation with San Francisco 49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk, for whom the team has reportedly been attempting to trade for. Should the Steelers ultimately trade for Aiyuk, they would quickly sign him to a contract extension, and his new salary cap charge for 2024 would likely go on the books at around $8-$10 million. The Steelers can obviously currently afford Aiyuk’s initial 2024 salary cap charge of $14.124 million should they trade for him.
The Steelers aren’t likely to get any contract extensions completed until the Aiyuk situation has finality. TE Pat Freiermuth and DT Cameron Heyward are two players who are still expected to sign contract extensions in the next several weeks. While certainly less likely to happen, RB Najee Harris is another plausible candidate to sign a contract extension before the start of the regular season.
A contract extension for Freiermuth is likely to result in his 2024 salary cap charge increasing some and the same goes for Harris should the team ultimately decide to get him done as well. As for a possible contract extension for Heyward, it’s easy to speculate that his 2024 salary cap charge would decrease by a good amount should he ultimately sign one.
Below is an updated breakdown of the Steelers’ 2024 salary cap situation as of Wednesday, with what we now believe is the known offseason workout bonus amount accounted for.
