Updating the Steelers salary cap situation with details of DK Metcalf’s new deal

The Pittsburgh Steelers have kicked off the official start of the 2025 league year. With business heating up, 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 estimated contracts I had for Darius Slay and Ryan McCollum were reported by OTC. They were exactly how I projected them and they do not need adjusted.

A report has finally come in as to the structure of DK Metcalf‘s new deal with the Steelers. It was known the deal was for five years and $150 million, but the breakdown was not previously reported. According to NBC Sports, Metcalf will receive a $30 million signing bonus and have a $5 million base salary in 2025. While there are various other numbers per year broken down as roster bonuses and base salaries, they do not affect his 2025 salary cap number. With the $30 million prorated over five years, $6 million will count on 2025 along with his $5 million salary. So instead of the $18 million cap hit the Steelers inherited for Metcalf from the trade, it is only an $11 million cap hit for 2025. After displacement, it comes in at just over $10 million against the cap.

If anyone was paying attention to my last salary cap update, I had Metcalf for the $18 million. Rather than added in the $7 million as a new calculation, I simply changed his $18 million number to $11 million.

The other contract that has been reported is that of cornerback Brandin Echols who signed a two-year deal with the Steelers for $6 million. Echols will be paid $3 million in 2025 with a base salary of $1.17 million and a signing bonus of $1.83 million. With the signing bonus prorated into each year as $915 K, Echols’ cap number for 2025 comes to $2.08 million. After displacing a $960 K salary, his total cost against the salary cap comes in at $1.125 million.

The Steelers added three more players to their roster, whether they officially announced it or it came from reliable sources. Esezi Otomewo, Jeremiah Moon, and James Pierre were added but no report has been made out of their salary. They joined other players who we are still waiting for salary information that include Scotty Miller, Ben Skowronek, Mason Rudolph, Daniel Ekuale, Juan Thornhill, or Isaiahh Loudermilk.

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
Scotty Miller: No Report: TBD
Ben Skowronek: No Report: TBD
Mason Rudolph: 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 $40.8 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 $33,824,784 under the salary cap as of Thursday night. They do not have the new deal for DK Metcalf since the news came late Thursday evening. Otherwise we have the exact same number.

Another credible salary cap website is spotrac.com, which has the Steelers at $36,836,304 as of Thursday night. Differences here are they do not have the salaries for Brandin Echols and Kenneth Gainwell or the new contract for DK Metcalf. 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.