When you think he might be finished, Omar Khan is just getting started. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ general manager made a pair of splash moves over the weekend, trading quarterback Kenny Pickett to the Philadelphia Eagles on Friday and then snagging former Chicago Bears starter Justin Fields in another trade on Saturday.
With the moves made, we can re-calculate how much Steelers Khan has to work with entering the second week of NFL free agency.
That comes with the caveat that we still haven’t seen the contract details for the contract of safety DeShon Elliott, so his salary is estimated in this update. There is only so much wiggle room in a contract like his two-year, $6 million deal. His 2024 salary cap hit has to be somewhere between $1.125 million and $4.875 million, and both of those extremes are very unlikely. We’ll estimate his 2024 cap hit at $2.625 million until we get a better figure.
So with that, after the weekend’s moves, the Steelers have about $10.3 million in 2024 offseason salary cap space, according to Steelers Now‘s estimate. That’s down from $17.9 million in our last update on Tuesday evening.
That number can 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 $7.7 million over the 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, Alex Highsmith, and not to mention the recently acquired cornerback Donte Jackson.
It appears that the Steelers missed Saturday’s deadline to restructure Jackson’s contract before they owed him a $4 million roster bonus. Jackson is still owed $4.723 million in salary, $1.7 million in per-game roster bonuses and $200,000 in workout bonuses, none of which is guaranteed, that the Steelers could attempt to renegotiate. If they released or traded Jackson from now on, his roster bonus that was paid salary would become a $4 million dead cap hit. For now, Jackson will still count $10.523 million toward the Steelers’ 2024 cap rolls.
The Steelers restructured Jackson’s contract, as reported on Monday morning by Over the Cap.
PITTSBURGH STEELERS 2024 SALARY CAP BREAKDOWN
| Functional 2024 cap space (est.) | -$9,424,030 | 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 | $223,032,016 | Donte Jackson | $10,522,500 |
| Dead cap hits | $24,381,069 | Isaac Seumalo | $10,191,666 |
| Cole Holcomb | $7,640,000 | ||
| Offseason cap space (est.) | $10,327,106 | Patrick Queen | $6,113,333 |
| 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/injured reserve (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 | ||
| Justin Fields | $3,233,448 | ||
| DeShon Elliott (est.) | $2,625,000 | ||
| Miles Killebrew | $2,255,000 | ||
| Joey Porter Jr. | $2,185,988 | ||
| Montravius Adams | $2,125,000 | ||
| 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.