Updating the Steelers salary cap situation after reports on DeShon Elliott’s extension

The Pittsburgh Steelers are well into the 2025 league year. With business continuing on, I am ready to make some updates to my numbers for the salary cap availability for the Steelers. While reports come in about a deal, it can sometimes take some time to know the exact financials within the contract. Relying heavily on reliable salary cap websites such as overthecap.com (OTC) or spotrac.com, when they are able to report a player’s contract numbers over the specific years I then update the salary cap situation with a more precise number.

Remember, to determine how much each player changes the Steelers’ salary cap space, their cap number must be adjusted due to roster displacement. As a reminder, roster displacement is taking into account only the top 51 contracts for a team count towards the salary cap during the offseason. As a larger contract comes on the books, it bumps a smaller contract out of the top 51. Therefore, it’s only the difference in those contracts that increases the salary cap number.

Since my last update, the Steelers have two changes in their top 51 contracts. The first was a two-year contract extension for safety DeShon Elliott. Set to count $3.75 million against the 2025 salary cap before his extension, Elliott had a $750 K prorated bonus and a $3 million base salary. With his new deal, all but the $750 K got thrown out the window as he is receiving a $1.17 million base salary this year and a $6 million signing bonus. Pro rating the $6 million out over the three seasons, Elliott now costs $3.92 million against the salary cap in 2025 and just over $6 million in each of the next two seasons. For this reason, Elliott only cost the Steelers an extra $170 K against the salary cap this year with his new deal.

The other move that was made was the release of running back Jonathan Ward, who had no dead money associated with his contract, and signed long snapper Tucker Addington to the roster. With three years of NFL experience, Addington‘s base salary is $1.1 million. Displacing James Pierre‘s $1.08 million out of the top 51, Addington reduces the Steelers salary cap by only $20 K.

Here is the approximate breakdown of the Steelers salary cap space as of now by my own calculations. The numbers below are strictly the salary cap hit for each player in 2025.

Steelers salary cap space heading into free agency: Approximately $63.69 million

Workout Bonuses: Held until unused is refunded in the fall -$0.9072
Jaylen Warren: $5.346 million for 2nd round RFA tender; No displacement: -$5.346 million
Larry Ogunjobi: Saves $7 million; No displacement: +$7 million
Malik Harrison: Reported $3.21 million; After displacement: -$2.324329 million
Kenneth Gainwell: Reported $1.79 million; After displacement: -$0.894982 million
DK Metcalf: Reported $11 million; After displacement: -$10.16 million
Ryan McCollum: Reported $1.03 million; After displacement: -$0.07 million
Darius Slay: Reported $10 million; After displacement: -$9.04 million
Brandin Echols: Reported $2.085 million; After displacement: -$1.125 million
Lecitus Smith: Reported $1.03 million; After displacement: -$0.07 million
Mason Rudolph: Reported $3 million; After displacement: -$2.04 million
Juan Thornhill: Reported $3 million; After displacement: -$2.04 million
Daniel Ekuale: Reported $2.8 million; After displacement: -$1.831667 million
Ben Skowronek: Reported $1.71 million; After displacement: -$0.68 million
Scotty Miller: Reported $1.1975 million; After displacement: -$0.1675 million
Isaiahh Loudermilk: Reported $1.3375 million; After displacement: -$0.3075 million
James Pierre: Reported $1.08 million; After displacement: -$0.05 million
Esezi Otomewo: Reported $1.03 million; No in top 51: -$0
Jeremiah Moon: Reported $1.03 million; No in top 51: -$0
Mike Williams: $1.516 million in dead money; No displacement: -$1.516 million
Calvin Anderson: Reported $1.585 million; After displacement: -$0.555 million
Max Scharping: Reported $1.1975 million; After displacement: -$0.1675 million
Montravius Adams: Saves $2.25 million; No displacement: +$2.25 million
Ryan Watts: $0.137013 million in dead money; No displacement: -$0.137013
Robert Woods: Reported $2 million; No displacement: -$2 million
George Pickens: Saves $3.656 million; After displacement: +$2.626 million
Kaleb Johnson: Reported $1.158557 million; After displacement: -$0.109111 million
Jack Sawyer: Reported $1.077733 million; After displacement: -$0.047733 million
Yahya Black: Reported $0.934959 million; No in top 51: -$0
Will Howard: Reported $0.902025 million; No in top 51: -$0
Carson Bruener: Reported $0.874235 million; No in top 51: -$0
Donte Kent: Reported $0.873363 million; No in top 51: -$0
Derrick Harmon: Reported $3.267928 million; After displacement: -$2.216819 million
Trey Sermon: Reported $1.03 million; No in top 51: -$0
Blake Mangelson: Released with $3,000 in dead money: -$0.003 million
Aaron Rodgers: Reported $14.15 million; After displacement: -$13.072267 million
DeShon Elliott: Increases $0.17 million; No displacement: -$0.17 million
Tucker Addington: Reported $1.1 million; After displacement: -$0.02 million

Approximate salary cap space: Approximately $18.6 million

So how does my salary cap number compare to those reported by the major salary cap websites?

According to overthecap.com (OTC), the Steelers are $18,622,645 under the salary cap. Having all the same contracts, we have the exact same number.

Another credible salary cap website is spotrac.com, which has the Steelers at $18,804,802 as of Sunday night as they do not have the Tucker Addington contract as well as they don’t the same cap number for Mason Rudolph. Other differences here are they do not have the offseason workouts counting against the salary cap. Additionally, Spotrac counts the potential dead money hit for players not in the top 51 even though it does not need to count against the cap at this time until those players are officially released.

While the Steelers are going to need cap space for a number of things this offseason, it doesn’t have to be at this time. The Steelers will need as much as an additional $13 million, but not until September. The expenses in September include when they need to account for all 53 players on the roster (about $1.8 million), sign their practice squad (between $4 million and $4.5 million), and have some carryover in order to do business throughout the year (about $7 million). But even taking these things into effect now, which they do not need to do as there are other moves which could be made to save some cap space such as a T.J. Watt contract extension and/or a Pat Freiermuth restructure, the Steelers still have room in order to acquire more players. The Steelers currently have around $5.6 million above their projected future expenses.

Does something not make sense? Curious about any of the specifics? Leave your questions in the comments below and I will check in and do my best to answer them.