The Steelers will save over $8 million against their 2021 salary cap obligations with Thursday’s release of starting guard David DeCastro.
DeCastro was set to earn $8.75 million in salary in 2021, the final season of his contract. His release will create a $5.5475 million dead cap hit from deferred signing bonus that DeCastro has already received.
After the move, the Steelers now have approximately $15.337 million in offseason salary cap space, according to Steelers Now analysis and salary data from the NFLPA, OvertheCap.com and other sources.
The team will also need to add two more players to the rolls this fall, plus a 16-man practice squad and retain enough cap space to operate during the season, which makes their useable amount of cap space at the moment less than $10 million.
The Steelers can save about another $5 million in 2021 salary cap money by reworking the contracts of kicker Chris Boswell and defensive tackle Stephon Tuitt, should they wish to.
In addition to the hole opened at guard by DeCastro’s release, the Steelers still have depth issues at cornerback and outside linebacker.