The Pittsburgh Steelers recently terminated the contracts of TE Jonnu Smith and T Cavin Anderson over the course of the last week, and neither of those cuts were a huge surprise. On the heels of those two contract terminations, and with the 2026 NFL league year set to start on Wednesday, now is a perfect time to look at the team’s salary cap situation as of Friday evening.
Currently, the Steelers have 59 players under contract for the start of the 2026 league year. The top 51 cap charges for those 59 players total out $255,937,286. Additionally, the Steelers now have a dead money total of $12,221,838 for 2026.
The most curious Steelers player under contract right now for 2026 is DB Jalen Ramsey. I outlined the reason for that as part of my last salary cap update. That curiosity all stems around the fact that Ramsey has an option bonus of $7.4 million due in August. Whether the Steelers decide to prorate that option bonus come later in the offseason could impact his 2026 salary cap charge.
For official cap accounting standards, the NFLPA and the NFLMC both treat Ramsey’s forthcoming option bonus as already being prorated. Because of that being the standard, Ramsey’s current cap charge for 2026 is officially $17,229,000. However, should the Steelers choose not to prorate that $7.4 option bonus of Ramsey’s later this summer, his cap charge will increase to $23.149 million. Please keep that in mind moving forward into the offseason. As of right now, we are going with the lower of the two cap charges for Ramsey and thus just as the NFLPA and NFLMC both are.
As for the Steelers Rule of 51 total for 2026 as we enter the final weekend of the 2025 league year, it now officially sits at $268,159,124. Additionally, and while not yet officially announced by the NFL and the NFLPA, the Steelers appear set to roll over $16,907,294 in unused 2025 salary cap space to 2026.
The NFL officially announced last week that the universal salary cap amount for 2026 is set to be $301,200,000. With that, the Steelers adjusted salary cap number for 2026 is expected to be $318,107,294, barring any unforeseen adjustments that have not come to light as of yet.
With the Steelers Rule of 51 total currently at $268,159,124, the team is now officially $49,948,170 under the cap as the 2025 league year ends.
The $49,948,170 of available salary cap space should be plenty of room for the Steelers to work with through the main portion of the free agency signing period, which is essentially through the 2026 NFL Draft taking place.
Moving forward past the 2026 NFL Draft, the Steelers will need to account for several forthcoming and fairly predictable cap costs leading all the way up to Week 1 on the 2026 regular season. Future salary cap costs that must be budgeted for include things such as offseason workout bonus charges, the draft class and undrafted free agent pool offset charges, 52nd and 53rd player charges post Rule of 51 ending, a full 17-man practice squad, all offseason injury settlements, potential players being on the Reserve/Injured list to start the regular season, and an in-season buffer amount of cap space to work with throughout the 2026 regular season.
I have listed estimation of these projected future offseason cap costs in the table below. They total out at $20,587,900. That total amount could shift quite a bit, depending on how many draft picks the Steelers ultimately make and where those selections ultimately wind up in the overall order.
For now, consider the Steelers as having $29,160,270 in effective salary cap space upon entering the start of the 2026 league year. While that is certainly not as much as $49,948,170 in available salary cap space, $29 million will go a long way when top 51 roster displacement is factored in along the way.
When we get past the 2026 NFL Draft, the Steelers are likely to sign a few players currently under contract to extensions prior to Week 1 of the regular season. The list of potential contract extension candidates for this offseason should likely include CB Joey Porter Jr., TE Darnell Washington, OLB Nick Herbig, DT Keeanu Benton and K Chris Boswell. Once we get past the start of free agency and the 2026 NFL Draft, we will take a closer look at all possible contract extension candidates and the potential impact on the team’s 2026 salary cap situation for each as well.
While the Steelers do have several players they could perform contract restructurings on this offseason to free up additional 2026 salary cap space, it currently feels like we might not see them have to do much, if any at all, of those kinds of transactions in the coming weeks and months. If that winds up being wrong, look for TE Pat Freiermuth to be the first player restructured. The Steelers could decide to restructure Freiermuth’s contract in the next few days, especially if they want to fold in his March roster bonus as part of such a transaction.
As the signings and re-signings start taking place next week, I will provide cap updates when appropriate. I will also have a 2026 cash spending outlook for the Steelers as soon as the NFLPA releases the official 2025 cash spending amounts for all 32 teams. That should happen very soon.
Related Items:Calvin Anderson, Chris Boswell, Darnell Washington, Jalen Ramsey, Joey Porter Jr., Jonnu Smith, Keeanu Benton, NFLPA, Nick Herbig, Pat Freiermuth, Salary Cap, Trending
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