Darnell Washington was the second of two big extensions for the Pittsburgh Steelers this week from the 2023 draft class following OLB Nick Herbig’s $100 million deal. Washington received a four-year, $42 million extension with initially reported guarantees of $21 million.
The full contract structure is now disclosed via Over The Cap.
Washington’s signing bonus of $10 million and his 2026 base salary of $1.25 million combine for a total of $11.25 million fully guaranteed at signing. His $9 million base salary in 2027 is guaranteed for injuries, so the actual total guarantee figure comes out to $20.25 million, and not the $21 million number initially reported.
His 2026 base salary of $1.25 million is low, but he still has solid cash flow due to the $10 million signing bonus. This allows for a low cap hit of just $3,473,438, which is a $423,000 decrease from the previous 2026 cap hit on his rookie contract. Pittsburgh created a small amount of cap space in 2026 with this extension. His cap hits go up significantly after the first year of the deal.
In 2027, Washington’s base salary jumps up to $9 million. That’s the highest base salary of any season, and he also has a $300,000 workout bonus that can be earned by showing up to the team’s voluntary offseason program. Every year of the deal other than 2026 has a $300,000 workout bonus included. With the base salary, prorated signing bonus, and workout bonus, Washington’s 2027 cap hit comes out to $11.3 million.
Roster bonuses kick in for the final three years of the deal starting in 2028. If he’s on the roster on the third day of the new league year in March each season, he will earn an additional $2.5 million per year.
With a base salary of $4.95 million in 2028, the incentives, and the prorated signing bonus combine for a total cap hit of $9.75 million.
His base salary climbs slightly to $5.574 million in 2029 and $6.2 million in 2030, which comes out to cap hits of $10.374 million and $11.0 million respectively.
Because there are $8.7 million of total incentives and no full guarantees past the first year, Pittsburgh has plenty of opportunities to cut ties with Washington prior to each year’s roster bonus coming due to save money and limit dead cap space.
Washington’s deal is worth $45,897,438 all-in over five years, but a lot of that will need to be continually earned over the life of the contract with no full guarantees other than the $11.25 million cash in Year 1. Most of that was already earned at signing.
To summarize the cash flow, Washington’s total—including the remaining money from his rookie deal—is $11.25 million in 2026, $20.55 million in 2027, $28.3 million in 2028, $36.674 million in 2029, and finally the full $45.674 million through Year 5 in 2030.
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