Steelers Now
The Pittsburgh Steelers have been handing out contract extensions left and right this offseason, with general manager Omar Khan already handing out new deals to Cam Heyward, Chris Boswell, Nick Herbig and Darnell Washington, before the team even breaks from spring practices.
How has Khan’s spending spree impacted the team’s salary cap situation, and how much money does he have left to work with, as remaining extension candidates like Joey Porter Jr. and Keeanu Benton await.
The Steelers have also signed Aaron Rodgers and restructured the contract of tight end Pat Freiermuth since our last update.
So where do the Steelers stand with regards to the salary cap after Khan’s early activity?
In terms of 2026 salary cap hits, Rodgers checked in at $22.25 million Freiermuth’s dropped after his restructure to $6.94 million. Heyward’s number dropped slightly to $13.67 million. Boswell now counts for $4.9 million against the 2026 cap. Herbig’s cap hit increased to $5.43 million, while Washington’s was reduced to $3.47 million.
With those changes, and the signings of all but one of the team’s 2026 NFL Draft class, we can take an adjusted look at the team’s salary cap situation.
The Steelers rolled over a whopping $16.9 million in salary cap space from 2025, which is the most I can ever recall them rolling over. Usually, they don’t even enter the season with even $10 million in buffer. So the Steelers will have more cap space to spend than most teams, with a $321.7 million team cap compared to the $301.2 million base amount.
The Steelers also don’t have very much dead money, with $6.9 million from the trade of Minkah Fitzpatrick last year and $3.9 million from the release of Jonnu Smith accounting for the vast majority of their $12.25 million in dead cap charges.
That leaves the Steelers with what looks like a decent amount of salary cap space remaining, with a current cap space of $5.85 million.
Offseason salary cap space can be deceiving. Khan can’t spend all the money in the Steelers’ coffers. The Steelers will have several expenses between now and the start of the season that while known, are not yet on the books.
Those include signing the final member of the 2026 NFL Draft class (quarterback Drew Allar), 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, players who receive injury settlements, and a buffer for in-season moves.
Those items will functionally reduce the team’s ability to spend by about $12.3 million, leaving Khan $6.5 million in the red when it comes to current functional salary cap space.
Because those items won’t hit the ledger until later in the summer, the Steelers are fine to over-spend now and figure out how to get back under the cap later.
That being said, Steelers can even...
