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Steelers Salary Cap Update after Rookie Contracts Signed

Alan Saunders   |  

Updated: May 23, 2025

The Pittsburgh Steelers have signed the last of their 2025 NFL Draft selections, with first-round pick Derrick Harmon officially putting pen to paper on Thursday.

While we’ve known about what the Steelers rookies will earn, now that the contracts are official, we can recalculate the team’s offseason salary cap space.

With Harmon, Kaleb Johnson and Jack Sawyer in the team’s top 51 contracts (Sawyer is No. 51), the Steelers currently have just under $33 million in offseason salary cap space, according to Steelers Now’s estimation.

While they won’t count toward the top 51 contracts, we also now know the details of the signing bonuses given to the team’s undrafted free agents, thanks to Over the Cap. The Steelers signed seven UDFAs right after the 2025 NFL Draft and two more after tryouts at rookie minicamp.

The Steelers gave $10,000 bonuses to wide receiver Roc Taylor, fullback/tight end DJ Thomas-Jones and offensive lineman Aiden Williams, an $8,333 bonus to safety Sebastian Castro, $6,666 to kicker Ben Sauls and tight end JJ Galbreath, $3,333 to wide receiver Ke’Shawn Williams and $1,000 to defensive lineman Blake Mangelson.

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. Even with the draft class under contract, 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 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, that receive injury settlements, and a buffer for in-season moves.

Those items will functionally reduce the team’s ability to spend by about $12 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.