Steelers Unlikely To Be Cashed Out For 2025 Season Based On History

Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers have their entire 2025 rookie class under contract and with the team now set to start its first set of OTA practices next week, now is a perfect time to look at the organization when it comes to its cash spending for this season.

This post is mostly to show where the team is currently when it comes to its cash spending for 2025 and what we should probably expect when it comes to additional cash spending for the remainder of the season. The CBA rule concerning cash spending throughout this three-year span (2024-2026) should help when it comes to this year’s cash spending projection.

For starters, it is important to know that NFL teams are required to spend at least 90 percent of the league’s three-year salary cap total (2024-2026) in cash. They are, however, encouraged to spend at least 95 percent of that total. In 2024, and according to the latest March report from the NFLPA, the Steelers spent $230,052,594 in cash in 2024, the first year of this current three-year span. That equates to roughly 90.1 percent of the league’s 2024 salary cap amount of $255.4 million. Obviously, that was right at the 90-percent minimum threshold.

As of March 25, the Steelers have a running cash spending total of $238,175,101 for 2025. That amount considers the top 53 players in cash spending currently under contract in addition to all signing bonuses this offseason given to players outside of those top 53. The NFL’s 2025 salary cap amount is $279.2 million, so that puts the team at 85.3 percent in cash-to-cap spending for the 2025 season as of the time of this post.

If we were to total the first two years of cash spending up to March 25, the Steelers are at $468,227,695 in cash spending. That is just 87.5 percent of the two-year salary cap total, which is $534.6 million.

Now, the Steelers still have several obvious cash spendings forthcoming in the form of a full practice squad ($4.23 million estimated) and offseason workout bonuses ($907,200 estimated). Additionally, there will likely be several cash injury settlements ($500,000 estimated) between now and the start of the 2025 regular season. That’s roughly another $5,637,200 in cash we can expect the Steelers to spend in 2025. That brings us to a projected cash spending right now of around $243,812,301 for 2025 and roughly around $473,864,895 for the first two years (2024-2025) of the three-year CBA period.

For the Steelers to at least stay on pace for 90 percent in cash versus cash spending through 2025, they will need to spend at least another $7,275,105. That obviously isn’t a huge shortage to overcome if they want to stay on pace with the 90-percent rule.

Now, the 90-percent rule aside, I will remind everyone once again that NFL teams are encouraged to spend at least 95 percent of the league’s three-year cap total in cash. In fact, the Steelers, according to the NFLPA, spent 97 percent of the NFL’s three-year (2021-2023) cap total in cash. You can see that cash-to-cap spending from 2021-2023 broken down by year below.

Steelers cash versus cap percentages for last three-year span in CBA.

Team had a 90.1% in 2024, year-one of the new three-year period. It’s a good bet that the spend ratio will be around 100% of the 2025 cap number, if not a little higher, this season. #Steelers #NFL pic.twitter.com/8MlJO1OpFG

— Steelers Depot 7⃣ (@Steelersdepot) April 10, 2025

After the first two years of the last three-year CBA span (2021-2023), the Steelers spent 96.7 percent of the $390.7 million cap total in cash. That left them spending 97.6 percent of the 2023 cap total ($224.8 million) in cash. As stated previously, the Steelers spent a respectable 97 percent of the cap total for 2021-2023 in cash. Because of their history related to three-year cash spending, it’s reasonable to expect the Steelers to follow a similar plan for this year period (2024-2026) as the previous one (2021-2023).

Assuming the Steelers do indeed closely follow their cash spending plan from the previous three-year CBA period, it’s reasonable to expect the team to have a 96.7 percent cash-to-cap spending ratio through 2025. Should that expectation be spot on, the Steelers will need to have spent a total of roughly $517 million in cash for 2024 and 2025. In short, they will need to spend roughly another $43 million in cash in 2025 to have a two-year cash-to-cap spending percentage of 96.7 percent.

So, if we are to assume the Steelers’ plan is to spend at least another $43 million in cash in 2025, how might they go about spending it?

For starters, it’s still quite easy to predict that the Steelers will ultimately sign OLB T.J. Watt to a contract extension prior to the start of the 2025 regular season. Watt is currently on the books for 2025 as $21.05 million cash spend. Based on Watt’s fair market contract extension projections done by myself and contract expert Daniel Salib, whom you can follow on Twitter here, it’s reasonable to expect the outside linebacker to have a new cash total for 2025 of $38 million. That is roughly $17 million more than he’s currently on the books for.

Spending an additional $17 million more in cash on Watt this offseason, assuming that contract extension indeed happens, would still leave the Steelers short roughly $26 million in cash spending based on our team’s total cash spending projection for 2025 of $286.8 million.

Will the Steelers ultimately sign veteran free agent QB Aaron Rodgers this offseason? It sure seems like signs are pointing toward that happening. Should that ultimately be the case, it would result in another sizable cash spend for the Steelers in 2025. I suspect the range of cash spending on Rodgers to be anywhere between $10 and $23 million. Sure, Rodgers indicated he would play in 2025 for $10 million, but I’m not so sure that will be his final cash total. Regardless, all signs point toward Rodgers signing, and from several vantage points, with one being a cash-spending need. Hopefully, we will get our answer to the Rodgers situation very soon.

Beyond new contracts for both Watt and Rodgers, there really isn’t a lot more cash spending for 2025 to project when it comes to the Steelers. I do, however, think we could see the team give K Chris Boswell a cash bump this offseason as it makes a ton of sense for it to do so. As I wrote several weeks ago, I can see the Steelers bumping Boswell’s 2025 cash total up to $6 million from the $3.12 million he’s currently scheduled to earn. The Steelers bumping up Boswell’s 2025 cash total by a full $3 million should not come as a huge surprise, should it ultimately happen.

As far as other possible offseason contract extensions go, the Steelers could decide to get one done with S DeShon Elliott, who is now in the final year of his current contract. Elliott is currently on the books to earn $3 million in cash in 2025. An extension this offseason for him could result in a bump of around $3 million [est.] more in cash.

While I don’t expect that the Steelers will sign RB Jaylen Warren or WR Calvin Austin III to contract extensions this offseason, both players, nonetheless, could be argued as being legitimate candidates. We’ll wait and see how it turns out for both of them.

While this post mostly centers on cash spending projections for the Steelers for 2025, we can take a brief look ahead at where the team currently sits in 2026 cash spending projections. As of the time of this post, the Steelers have 45 players under contract for 2026, with the cash total of those players being just $154,686,043. Currently, Over the Cap has a conservative 2026 cap number for the NFL set at $295.5 million. While the Steelers’ running cash spending projection for 2026 will likely inflate this offseason, and especially if Watt signs a contract extension this offseason, you can clearly see that the team will need to plan on spending a lot more cash next offseason. That is especially the case if it wants to meet a three-year cash-to-cap spending ratio of 97 percent.

In summation, sure, the Steelers could realistically get away with spending just an additional $7,275,105 in cash this offseason to stay on course with a 90-percent ratio. That would result in them needing to spend just 90 percent of the 2026 cap total next year to satisfy the CBA minimums for the three-year period. That stated, I will be surprised if we don’t see the Steelers stay more in line with their cash spending schedule from the previous three-year period (2021-2023) listed above and thus that would mean we should expect roughly around another $43 million being spent in 2025.

Assuming that the Steelers ultimately sign Rodgers, I will write another post about where the team sits in 2025 cash spending and also start looking ahead more at what exactly a contract extension might look like for Watt this summer. In the meantime, however, please ask whatever questions you might have concerning cash spending as it relates to the Steelers in the comments below this post. Also, please bookmark this post for later reference so that we can see how close or how far off my projections wind up being.