The contract details have been revealed for new Pittsburgh Steelers safety DeShon Elliott.
According to the NFLPA, Elliott’s two-year, $6 million deal includes only $1.5 million in guaranteed money, in the form of a signing bonus paid to him this year. He will have a $1.5 million base salary in 2024, and a $3 million base salary in 2025.
That will make Elliott’s cap hit for the 2024 season $2.25 million, slightly less than we estimated in our last salary cap update.
With Elliott’s salary now known, we can make a minor update to the team’s current salary cap situation. The Steelers have approximately $14.3 million in offseason salary cap space.
That comes with the caveat that we still haven’t seen the contract details for new contract of wide receiver Van Jefferson. He is not included in this update.
That total number can still be misleading. Before the start of the 2024 regular season, they will need to pay workout bonuses, sign their rookie class, account for the 52nd and 53rd players on the roster, sign a practice squad, account for players on the injured reserve and leave space for in-season acquisitions.
The Steelers once again will have some work to do to get salary cap complaint before the start of the season after this weekend’s moves. They are functionally $4.5 million over their own in-season salary cap.
The Steelers also have several avenues of achieving further savings, as the team can cut, restructure, or extend the contract of several veteran players, including Cam Heyward, Larry Ogunjobi, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Alex Highsmith.
PITTSBURGH STEELERS 2024 SALARY CAP BREAKDOWN
| Functional cap space (est.) | -$4,526,530 | T.J. Watt | $30,418,694 |
| Cam Heyward | $22,406,250 | ||
| Estimated 2024 NFL salary cap | $255,400,000 | Minkah Fitzpatrick | $21,355,000 |
| Steelers 2023 salary cap rollover | $2,340,191 | Alex Highsmith | $13,933,000 |
| Steelers 2024 salary cap (est.) | $257,740,191 | Larry Ogunjobi | $13,283,333 |
| James Daniels | $11,166,668 | ||
| Top 51 salaries | $218,134,516 | Isaac Seumalo | $10,191,666 |
| Dead cap hits | $24,381,069 | Cole Holcomb | $7,640,000 |
| Patrick Queen | $6,113,333 | ||
| Offseason cap space (est.) | $14,317,406 | Donte Jackson | $6,000,000 |
| Nate Herbig | $5,460,000 | ||
| Draft pool | $3,013,936 | Chris Boswell | $4,720,000 |
| End of rule of 51 | $1,830,000 | Elandon Roberts | $4,667,500 |
| Practice squad (est.) | $4,000,000 | Najee Harris | $4,151,460 |
| In-season buffer/IR (est.) | $10,000,00 | Damontae Kazee | $3,875,000 |
| Workout bonuses (placeholder) | $907,200 | Broderick Jones | $3,778,719 |
| Dan Moore Jr. | $3,235,000 | ||
| Potential cap savings: | Justin Fields | $3,233,448 | |
| Cam Heyward 2-yr ext/void | $9,860,000 | DeShon Elliott | $2,250,000 |
| Cam Heyward 3-yr ext/void | $11,092,500 | Miles Killebrew | $2,255,000 |
| T.J. Watt full restructure | $9,965,000 | Joey Porter Jr. | $2,185,988 |
| Minkah Fitzpatrick restructure | $8,860,000 | Montravius Adams | $2,125,000 |
| Alex Highsmith restructure | $6,405,333 | Cameron Johnston | $2,083,333 |
| Pat Freiermuth | $1,918,057 | ||
| George Pickens | $1,841,506 | ||
| Keeanu Benton | $1,666,619 | ||
| DeMarvin Leal | $1,414,608 | ||
| Darnell Washington | $1,216,798 | ||
| Russell Wilson | $1,210,000 | ||
| Christian Kuntz | $1,163,333 | ||
| Isaiahh Loudermilk | $1,135,072 | ||
| Calvin Austin III | $1,111,084 | ||
| Nick Herbig | $1,083,231 | ||
| Breiden Fehoko | $1,055,000 | ||
| Denzel Mims | $1,055,000 | ||
| Connor Heyward | $1,023,806 | ||
| Mark Robinson | $1,013,089 | ||
| Jaylen Warren | $989,000 | ||
| Luq Barcoo | $985,000 | ||
| Marquez Callaway | $985,000 | ||
| Dez Fitzpatrick | $985,000 | ||
| Thomas Graham Jr. | $985,000 | ||
| Kyron Johnson | $985,000 | ||
| Jonathan Marshall | $985,000 | ||
| Josiah Scott | $985,000 | ||
| Spencer Anderson | $934,446 | ||
| Kalon Barnes | $915,000 | ||
| Dylan Cook | $915,000 | ||
| Jalen Elliott | $915,000 | ||
| Devery Hamilton | $915,000 | ||
| Ryan McCollum | $915,000 |
Salary figures from Steelers Now sources, the NFLPA, and OvertheCap.com.