NFL sets salary cap at $182.5M; Steelers have about $6.1M to spend

With the NFL salary cap figure being set at $182.5 million Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Steelers finally know how much room they will have to spend once free agency begins next week.

It’s not much.

Barring any further contracts being restructured, the Steelers will enter free agency approximately $6.1 million under the cap, according to salary-tracking web site spotrac.com.

The Steelers reached that figure after restructuring the contract of fullback Derek Watt, which provided $880,000 in cap relief for 2021.

The salary cap, which totaled $198.2 million in 2020, will drop by nearly $17 million. The reduction was a result of stadium revenues being slashed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Steelers are permitted to carry over $4.95 million in unused cap space from 2020, raising the franchise’s cap number to $187.45 million. Their salary cap obligations, which include “dead money” on contracts of Maurkice Pouncey, Vance McDonald and others no longer with the team, is about $181.33 million.

Before free agency begins in one week, the Steelers could create more space by restructuring the contracts of defensive end Stephon Tuitt and kicker Chris Boswell. The Steelers already have restructured deals for defensive tackle Cameron Heyward, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and Watt. Restructuring Tuitt’s deal would free an additional $4 million in 2021 cap space.

After Roethlisberger took a $5 million cut in salary to return for an 18th season, the Steelers could take the same approach with cornerback Joe Haden, who will count $15.575 million against the cap. Linebacker Vince Williams also could be a cap casualty, and the Steelers could free space by extending the deals of cornerback Steve Nelson and guard David DeCastro beyond 2021.

The Steelers already declined to use the franchise tag on outside linebacker Bud Dupree or wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, ensuring they will test free agency. Dupree and Smith-Schuster are among 19 Steelers players who will become unrestricted free agents. After signing Ray-Ray McCloud on Wednesday, the Steelers have one restricted free agent remaining: linebacker Ola Adeniyi.

The Steelers like to retain their own free agents before looking elsewhere, and they likely will try to retain offensive linemen Zach Banner and Matt Feiler, cornerback Cameron Sutton and nose tackle Tyson Alualu. The Steelers also will try to find a center to replace Pouncey.

“We knew this would be a big class that we would have to deal with,” general manager Kevin Colbert said a few weeks ago. “We knew it would be a challenging class that we would have to deal with as well (if we were) moving into a normal cap situation.”