Steelers Restructure Contract of Veteran WR

The Pittsburgh Steelers have restructured the contract of wide receiver Gunner Olszewski, saving the team about $600,000 in 2023 salary cap obligations.

Olszewski is in the second season of a two-year deal and had been set to count for $2.6175 million against the team’s salary cap this season, with $617,500 in deferred signing bonus from 2022 and $2 million in salary.

According to a report by Field Yates of ESPN, the Steelers have restructured Olszewski’s contract and his cap hit will now be $2.026 million, saving the team $591,500 under this season’s cap obligations.

It’s not clear at this point the specific mechanism the Steelers used to reduce Olszewski’s cap hit. He could have agreed to a reduced salary in exchange for a guarantee, or the team could have added a voidable year. His original contract had no guarantees other than the signing bonus.

The Steelers have an interesting situation with the salary cap, as they will be under the cap number with their current 53-man roster, dead money, injured reserve and have enough to sign a practice squad.

But the team likely does not have a large enough buffer to feel comfortable being able to make necessary in-season moves. 

In order to secure that breathing room, they may renegotiate the contract of more players to attempt to clear that room. A full restructuring of T.J. Watt’s contract would clear more than $12 million from the team’s salary cap obligations. They probably only need about a third of that.