The Pittsburgh Steelers trimmed their 2024 roster down to 53 active players on Tuesday and those moves produced minimal dead money against the team’s salary cap.
The largest dead money charge of all the players cut on Tuesday belongs to WR Quez Watkins. Watkins will have a dead money charge of $167,500 for 2024, as that was the signing bonus given to him back when he signed his one-year, veteran benefit contract in early April. Watkins will not have any dead money associated with him in 2025.
As for the remaining dead money produced by the Steelers’ final roster trimming these last three days, those charges belong to three of the five undrafted free agents signed this year. That list of three players includes QB John Rhys Plumlee, RB Daijun Edwards, and ILB Jacoby Windmon.
Plumlee, who was given a $35,000 signing bonus when he signed his three-year contract, will have a 2024 dead money charge of $11,666. He will also have a $23,334 dead money charge in 2025 because he was waived after June 1.
As for Edwards, who was given an $18,000 signing bonus as part of the three-year contract he signed after the 2024 NFL Draft, he will have a 2024 dead money charge of $6,000 with another $12,000 dead money charge in 2025.
When it comes to Windmon, he was given a $10,000 signing bonus as part of his three-year contract that he signed after the 2024 NFL Draft. He will have a 2024 dead money charge of $3,333 and a 2025 dead money charge of $6,667.
All told, these four players produced $188,499 in 2024 dead money and $42,001 for 2025.
I will have a full 2024 salary cap update on the Steelers soon. We are now waiting to see if there will be any final roster adjustments as well as the 16-man practice squad the team puts together in the coming days.
