As of Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Steelers reportedly have their entire 2025 draft class signed as a result of DT Derrick Harmon agreeing to terms on his rookie contract. With the entire draft class now signed, and all of the details related to the contracts signed by the team’s 10 undrafted free agents now in, I can provide an update on the team’s 2025 salary cap situation with the start of OTAs scheduled for next week.
According to my accounting, the Steelers are now roughly $32,410,608 under the cap with their Rule of 51 and with 90 players now under contract. While we are still awaiting the official contract numbers related to RB Trey Sermon and G Nick Broeker, neither player’s deal is expected to impact the Rule of 51 total. Additionally, Harmon’s 2025 cap charge could have an exceedingly small discrepancy from my accounting. If there is a discrepancy, it will only be a few dollars. We’ll know his official contract layout soon.
The Steelers are still awaiting a decision from veteran QB Aaron Rodgers. Should he ultimately sign with the Steelers, his 2025 salary cap charge is expected to be at least $10 million and possibly as high as $25 million. While that’s an exceptionally broad range, on the surface, it is a realistic one.
While we await a decision from Rodgers, the Steelers are still in a great spot when it comes to their 2025 salary cap situation. The same goes for their cash spending. Currently, I have the Steelers’ cash spending total for 2025 at $238,171,101 for their top 53 players under contract and additional signing bonuses given. That’s $41,028,899 under the NFL’s 2025 official cap number of $279.2 million. In short, expect the Steelers to spend a lot more cash between now and the start of the 2025 regular season.
While the Steelers are currently expected to be right at $32,410,608 under the cap, they will need to budget for other forthcoming offseason cap costs leading up to the start of the 2025 regular season. Those projected forthcoming cap costs should total out to around $13,117,200. Those costs include things such as a 52nd and 53rd player, a full practice squad, offseason workout bonuses, injury settlements, and cap space room to work with once the regular season gets underway.
It’s important to remind everyone once again that Rodgers ultimately signing could greatly impact available salary cap space. Even so, the Steelers are expected to sign OLB T.J. Watt to a contract extension before the regular season gets underway and assuming they do so, that could and should clear around $9 million or so in 2025 salary cap space. Signing Watt to a contract extension would also result in additional 2025 cash spending, which is likely to going need to happen.
While there likely won’t be a need for it, the Steelers could ultimately restructure the contracts of TE Pat Freiermuth and OLB Alex Highsmith this offseason to free up as much as $15 million more in 2025 salary cap space. I will be surprised if either of those contracts are touched, however.
As far as other possible moves that could impact both cap and cash spending this offseason, the Steelers could give K Chris Boswell a raise. While that likely wouldn’t be via a contract extension, more cash might ultimately be added to his 2025 contract year. If that happens, however, we’re not talking about a hefty sum of cap and cash dollars. Additionally, it will be interesting to see if the Steelers plan to sign S DeShon Elliott to a contract extension this offseason. Such an extension should be easy to work out should that be the team’s goal. Elliott’s 2025 cap number shouldn’t increase all that much should he ultimately sign a contract extension.
When the Steelers finally set their 53-man roster and practice squad for the 2025 regular season, small cap savings could be realized based on cuts made. For example, players such as RB/KR Cordarrelle Patterson, DL Dean Lowry, and ILB Cole Holcomb could ultimately have their contracts terminated. All three of those players currently reside in the team’s Rule of 51. In short, a few players who are currently in the team’s Rule of 51 aren’t likely to be under contract come the start of the 2025 regular season.
I should also note that we could see an injury protection benefit claim this offseason from former Steelers S Ryan Watts, who was released with a failed physical designation a few weeks ago. Such a claim, albeit likely to be minimal overall in nature, would go against the Steelers’ 2025 salary cap.
Moving forward, Rodgers’ status is ultimately the biggest thing to keep an eye on when it comes to the Steelers’ 2025 salary cap situation. Also, a contract extension for Watt is yet another transaction that figures to happen that will greatly impact the team’s 2025 salary cap situation.
While I have briefly touched on cash spending in this post, logic tells me that there will be much more of that done between now and the start of the 2025 regular season. Personally, I am expecting the Steelers to spend roughly around $286.2 million in cash in 2025. Currently, they are roughly $48 million away from that amount. What ultimately happens with Rodgers and Watt will play a big part in that expected cash spending moving forward.
