Can Steelers Make Salary Cap Work for Davante Adams Trade?

The Pittsburgh Steelers are interesting in acquiring Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams, but can they afford him?

The Raiders are reportedly asking for a second-round pick in return for Adams, though it seems more likely the best they’ll be able to get is a third-rounder. The Steelers can absolutely afford that.

The real question is whether or not they can make Adams work under the salary cap. That may take some finagling, but Omar Khan can make it work.

Adams is currently owed $13.53 million over the rest of the 2024 season in salary and per-game roster bonuses. He is also owed $36.25 million in each of the 2025 and 2026 seasons.

Right now, the Steelers have about $10.6 million in salary cap space, per OvertheCap.com. Adams will be paid almost a million per game, so if the Steelers wait until the trade deadline of Nov. 4, and Adams is paid for the next four games, they can pretty easily fit his salary under the cap.

If they want to trade for him earlier than that, they would have to make some kind of other move like cutting a high-priced player from the bottom of the roster, restructuring the contract of an existing player like Minkah Fitzpatrick, or restructuring the contract of Adams himself.

Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Omar Khan during a press conference on April 27, 2024. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now

Either way, the cap space in 2024 might get tight, but it would not hold the Steelers back from making such a move.

What about the $36.25 million that he is owed in each of the next two seasons that would make Adams the highest-paid receiver in the league? Don’t worry about it. Not a penny of that money is guaranteed. The Steelers or any other team acquiring Adams could cut him after the 2024 season and not owe him a thing.

No one, not the Raiders or anyone else, is going to pay Davante Adams that price tag. Either he will negotiate a different contract with the team that trades for him, or he’ll be released and negotiate a different contract on the open market.

Clearly, the Steelers feel they have enough future salary cap space to devote big money to a wide receiver at this point. They had negotiated a deal with Brandon Aiyuk that was worth $30 million a season over the next four years. So the team clearly feels comfortable with spending money in that range on a top receiver.

The Steelers might not be Adams’ preferred destination — that will likely be with his old quarterback Aaron Rodgers on the New York Jets — and the Raiders may prefer to trade him out of the AFC, especially with the Steelers coming up on the schedule. But the salary cap won’t be an impediment to a deal.