Inside the Numbers: Steelers Salary Cap Situation Entering Training Camp

Mike Tomlin, Kevin Colbert and the rest of the Steelers front office had seven months to assemble their roster for the 2019 season.

New faces that are expected to have an impact are cornerback Steven Nelson, linebacker Mark Barron, linebacker Devin Bush, wide receiver Donte Moncrief, wide receiver Diontae Johnson and cornerback Justin Layne.

One of the things you can always count on is that the team will always spend to the cap and this season is no exception. Entering camp the Steelers 2019 Cap sits at $205,789,669 which is the second highest in the NFL (Cleveland Browns/$212,412,823) and have the least money left to spend ($1,109,251).

Steelers 2019 Cap Spending:
Defense: 39 players,  $94,393,439 spent (45.6% of the cap)
Offense:   39 players,  $91,886,484 spent  (44.4% of the cap)
Special Teams: 5 players, $7,437,332 spent (3.6% of the cap)

Who on the current roster is taking up the most cap space in 2019?

HIGHEST STEELERS CAP HITS

Ben Roethlisberger $26.2m
Cameron Heyward $14.9m
Stephon Tuitt $13.6m
David DeCastro $12m
Joe Haden $11.9m
Bud Dupree $9.2m
Alejandro Villanueva $8.4m
Maurkice Pouncey $8m
Vance McDonald $5.8m
Chris Boswell $4.2m

With so little cap room available, if the Steelers hope to extend any contracts before the end of camp, they’ll need to restructure some current contracts, and the above list is a good place to start. The Steelers won’t work on new contracts during the season, so they have a 4 week window to work on new deals for these players that will be free agents after the 2019 season.

S Sean Davis
OLB Bud Dupree
OT Matt Feiler
OL B.J. Finney
TE Xavier Grimble
CB Joe Haden
DT Javon Hargrave
CB Mike Hilton
LB Tyler Matakevich

Of course, those well-played players on the roster aren’t the only reason the Steelers are close to the cap limit. They’ve also got a ton of money sitting on the sidelines this year in dead cap hits.

2019 DEAD CAP HITS

Antonio Brown $21,120,000
Morgan Burnett $2,833,334
Marcus Gilbert $1,728,500
Jon Bostic $700,000
Brian Allen $115,088