The Pittsburgh Steelers officially re-signed defensive lineman Isaiahh Loudermilk to a one-year contract a couple of weeks ago and the details related to that deal have now surfaced. Loudermilk was an unrestricted free agent at the start of the 2025 NFL year on March 11.
Loudermilk’s deal, according to Over the Cap, has a base salary of $1.46 million. He also receives a signing bonus of $167,500. This is a benefit deal so Loudermilk’s cap number for 2024 will be $1,337,500. The only guaranteed money that Loudermilk received in this deal is the $167,500 signing bonus.
This contract is a bit unique as it is classified as a four-year player qualifying contract. This allowed the Steelers to pay Loudermilk $290,000 more than his credited season base salary minimum of $1.17 million. That extra $290,000 is a player benefit from the league and thus the Steelers will not have that part of the base salary as a cash expense.
This contract also functions somewhat similar to a veteran benefit contract in that the benefit portion does not count against the team’s salary cap. This explains why Loudermilk’s 2025 salary cap charge is lower than his total contract value, which is $1,627,500.
The Steelers have utilized four-year player qualifying contracts in the past. I believe the last time they did so was with TE Zach Gentry in 2023. Gentry, however, did not make the 53-man roster that year so the signing bonus of $152,500 that was given to him in the deal wound up as dead money against the team’s salary cap. The team also signed S Terrell Edmunds to a four-year player qualifying contract in 2022.
Loudermilk was originally selected by the Steelers in the fifth round of the 2021 NFL Draft out of Wisconsin. The Steelers traded up in that draft to select him.
In his first four NFL seasons with the Steelers, Loudermilk has played in 58 total regular season games with five starts. He has registered 63 total tackles, one tackle for loss, one sack, one quarterback hit, and six passes defensed in 807 total defensive snaps played in regular season contests. Loudermilk has also registered 352 special teams snaps in regular season play so far in his NFL career.
You can read everything that the CBA has to say about the NFL’s four-year player qualifying contract in the pdf addition below:
nfl-cba-four-year-player-qualifying-contract
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