Steelers Analysis

Steelers Salary Cap Update after George Pickens Trade

Alan Saunders   |  

Updated: Jun 13, 2025

The Pittsburgh Steelers spent most of the 2025 offseason with almost no dead money on their salary cap rolls, but that has changed after the trade of wide receiver George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys and the release of a few other players.

The Steelers trade of Pickens caused a dead cap hit of $522,670 for the remaining prorated portion of his signing bonus. That’s one of a number of dead cap hits the Steelers have added recently.

After some time, the NFLPA determined that the Steelers’ release of Mike Williams early in the offseason included a $1.516 million dead cap hit that was not originally reported. That charge has hit their rolls recently.

The Steelers also incurred dead cap hits with the release of Montravius Adams ($875,000) and Ryan Watts ($137,000) to bring their overall dead cap hit total north of $6.6 million.

PITTSBURGH STEELERS 2025 DEAD CAP HITS

How has that changed the team’s overall salary cap picture? Not that much. While those moves created dead cap hits, they also reduced expected salary charges for 2025. So the overall cap picture remains about the same.

According to Steelers Now’s estimation, the Steelers have just over $35 million in current, offseason salary cap space.

PITTSBURGH STEELERS 2025 SALARY CAP SNAPSHOT

Offseason salary cap space can be deceiving. General manager Omar Khan can’t spend all the money in the Steelers’ coffers. The Steelers will have some expenses between now and the start of the season that while known, are not yet on the books. Those include the final unsigned player in the 2025 NFL Draft class — first-round pick Derrick Harmon — offseason workout bonuses, the final two players on the 53-man roster (only 51 count in the offseason), a practice squad, players on the injured reserve, and a buffer for in-season moves.

Those items will functionally reduce the team’s ability to spend by about $16 million. Because those items won’t hit the ledger until later in the summer, the Steelers can actually over-spend now and figure out how to get back under the cap later.

So the Steelers have plenty of cap space to sign Aaron Rodgers — especially if he’s really willing to play for $10 million, like he said — trade for a wide receiver, and maybe even add a cornerback to the rotation.

KNOWN STEELERS 2025 FUTURE EXPENSES

The Steelers can even make a whole lot more cap space if they want to. The forthcoming T.J. Watt contract extension will almost certainly reduce his cap hit, and possibly significantly. The Steelers could also restructure the contract of players like Alex Highsmith, Cam Heyward, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Pat Freiermuth to make more salary cap space. A couple of veterans that have been displaced on the depth chart like Dean Lowry and Cordarrelle Patterson could also provide cap relief if released.

POTENTIAL STEELERS 2025 SALARY CAP SAVINGS

PITTSBURGH STEELERS 2025 PLAYER-BY-PLAYER SALARY CAP HITS

Salary figures from Steelers Now sources, the NFLPA, and Over The Cap.