Updating the Steelers salary cap situation after claiming Lecitus Smith off waivers

The Pittsburgh Steelers have kicked off the official start of 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 claimed guard Lecitus Smith off of waivers from the New England Patriots. Because his salary with the Patriots was known, the Steelers inherited the $1.03 million contract. Displacing a $960 K contract, it only reduced the Steeler salary cap by $70 K.

I’m also making a decision to add another contract on the books. Mason Rudolph signed a two-year deal with the Steelers for $8 million. In Bob Labriola‘s Asked & Answered column on steelers.com on Tuesday, he confirmed that Rudolph has $4.5 million guaranteed. I’m taking this as his money paid for the first year and estimating what his salary cap hit will be. My estimation is $1.5 million will be his base salary and $3 million will be his signing bonus. After prorating that bonus into two years, Rudolph will come to a $3 million salary cap hit for 2025. Although the Steelers could have this designated out to where it was under $2.9 million, I’m going with the $3 million estimate until I get more precise numbers. After displacing at $960 K contract, his cap cap hit lowers the Steelers total by just over $2 million.

There are still a number of players who we are still waiting for salary information. Those players include Scotty Miller, Ben Skowronek, Daniel Ekuale, Juan Thornhill, Isaiahh Loudermilk, Esezi Otomewo, Jeremiah Moon, and James Pierre.

Here is the approximate breakdown of the Steelers salary cap space after some of the most recent deals 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 fro 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: ESTIMATED $3 million; After displacement: -$2.04 million
Scotty Miller: No Report: TBD
Ben Skowronek: No Report: TBD
Daniel Ekuale: No Report: TBD
Juan Thornhill: No Report: TBD
Isaiahh Loudermilk: No Report: TBD
Esezi Otomewo: No Report: TBD
Jeremiah Moon: No Report: TBD
James Pierre: No Report: TBD

Approximate salary cap space: Approximately $38.7 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 $40,754,784 under the salary cap as of Tuesday night. They have the new deal for DK Metcalf having an extra $417 for some reason and they do not have the contract for Mason Rudolph. Otherwise we have the exact same number.

Another credible salary cap website is spotrac.com, which has the Steelers at $42,936,775 as of Tuesday night. Differences here are they do not have the salaries for Brandin Echols and Mason Rudolph. Also, 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 $15 million, with $13 million not needed until September. The Steelers are estimated to need about $2 million to sign their rookie class after displacement based on their current draft picks. 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, the Steelers have plenty of room in order to still be active in free agency.

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.