The Pittsburgh Steelers signed veteran TE Donald Parham Jr. to a one-year contract a few days ago. On Monday, we learned the finer details of that deal.
According to the NFLPA public salary cap page and Over the Cap, Parham’s deal is for the league minimum for his credited NFL seasons. His base salary is $1.17 million and there was no signing bonus given to him.
This contract will qualify as a veteran benefit contract, meaning Parham will have a salary cap charge of $1.03 million. That’s the minimum base salary for a player with just two credited NFL seasons. It does not appear as if any of Parham’s $1.17 million base salary is guaranteed, which one would expect to be the case.
Parham’s deal did not impact the Steelers’ 2025 salary cap situation much as it relates to their Rule of 51 and that’s because the lowest cap charge within that is $840,000. After the top 51 displacement took place, $190,000 of available salary cap space was used to sign Parham.
Donald Parham Jr. comes to Pittsburgh after spending the entire 2024 season on the Denver Broncos’ practice squad. He entered the NFL in 2019 with the Detroit Lions after going undrafted out of Stetson. Following a short stay on the Lions’ roster, Parham spent the rest of the 2019 summer with the Washington Reskins. He originally made Washington’s practice squad but was released from that unit a few weeks into the 2019 season.
After playing for the Arlington Renegades of the XFL in 2020, Parham signed with the Los Angeles Chargers in April 2020. He ultimately stuck on the Chargers’ roster for four seasons on his way to registering 67 receptions for 764 yards and 11 touchdowns in 47 regular-season games. He started 23 of those contests.
The Chargers parted ways with Parham last August shortly before the 2024 regular season got underway. In total, Parham has logged 1,223 regular-season NFL snaps on offense with another 98 snaps coming on special teams.
