The Pittsburgh Steelers have trimmed their active roster to 53 players and that, of course, means the start of the 2024 regular season is right around the corner. While the NFL will continue to use the Rule of 51 until next Thursday, we can now take a look at what the team’s salary cap situation looks like once the offseason accounting process officially ends.
For starters, let it be known that the NFLPA public report has the Steelers at $16,543,245 under the cap as of Friday morning. However, the NFLPA is still using the Rule of 51 so several things that will happen accounting-wise on Thursday have not gone into effect just yet.
The NFLPA has the Steelers with 61 players under contract as of Friday morning. That includes the 53-man active roster, one suspended player (DB Cameron Sutton), one player on Reserve/PUP (ILB Cole Holcomb), and six players on Reserve/Injured (OL Nate Herbig, OL Dylan Cook, OLB Jeremiah Moon, DB Ryan Watts, OLB David Perales, and OLB Julius Welschof). Welschof, however, has since been waived with an injury settlement, and that move has yet to be accounted for by the NFLPA.
While the Steelers have now agreed to terms with 15 practice squad players, those contracts have yet to show up as accounted for by the NFLPA. That will happen in the coming days.
When removing the Rule of 51 offseason rules, the Steelers are right around $11,849,357 under the cap. However, when a full practice squad and a predicted $5 million in-season cap space buffer are both applied, the team should be right around $2,849,357 under the cap.
I must note that there are still a few injury-settlement amounts that are outstanding at the time of this post. Additionally, and as of Tuesday, there is a small discrepancy in my numbers and the NFLPA’s in the amount of $721,666. This might be related to an injury settlement in addition to a possible lowering of the offseason workout bonus charge of $893,920 that the NFLPA debited on Sept. 14.
After the NFLPA cycles through all of the outdated practice squad signings and drops the Rule of 51, it will be much easier to track down this discrepancy amount. It will come out in the wash within two weeks. In the meantime, do know that there is some sort of minor discrepancy right now of less than $725,000, and to the good side at that. It could also be a mistake on the NFLPA’s part, which I have seen happen several times before. None of the copycat bloggers will tell you that because none of them follow the cap situation and NFLPA sheet daily like I do.
With more than a week to go before the 2024 regular season gets underway, I think we can expect the Steelers to complete at least one contract extension before the team travels to Atlanta a week from Saturday. It will be surprising if TE Pat Freiermuth is not signed to a contract extension before then. Additionally, contract extensions for DT Cameron Heyward and RB Najee Harris are not out of the question.
Contract extensions for Freiermuth and Harris are likely to increase their 2024 salary cap charges, which obviously would use more available salary cap space. However, a contract extension for Heyward is likely to drop his 2024 salary charge. By this time next week, we should have all the answers when it comes to contract extensions.
It does not appear as though the Steelers will need to restructure the contract of S Minkah Fitzpatrick in the next week. We’ll have to wait and see if that is indeed the case. It’s there if they need to, however.
The Steelers are still likely to adjust their 53-man active roster in the next week by one, two or three players. It’s doubtful that any changes will result in a huge gain or loss of 2024 salary cap space.
In closing, this table below should outline where the team is projected to sit if the Rule of 51 were not in place. Next Friday I will provide another full salary cap update, which should be the final one I do before the start of the 2024 regular season.
