The Pittsburgh Steelers have kicked off the official start of the 2026 league year. With business heating up, I am ready to make some updates to my numbers for the salary cap availability for the Steelers. While reports come in about a deal, it can sometimes take some time to know the exact financials within the contract. Relying heavily on reliable salary cap websites such as overthecap.com (OTC) or spotrac.com, when they are able to report a player’s contract numbers over the specific years I then update the salary cap situation with a more precise number.

Remember, to determine how much each player changes the Steelers’ salary cap space, their cap number must be adjusted due to roster displacement. As a reminder, roster displacement is taking into account only the top 51 contracts for a team count towards the salary cap during the offseason. As a larger contract comes on the books, it bumps a smaller contract out of the top 51. Therefore, it’s only the difference in those contracts that increases the salary cap number.

Since my last update, there has only been one salary reported. The one year deal For Ryan McCollum comes in with a $1.145 million base salary, a $75 K signing bonus, and a $112.5 K total in per game roster bonuses which comes to a total of $1.3325 million. After displacing Donte Kent’s salary out of the top 51, which was $1,038,363, McCollum only costs less than $0.3 million against the Steelers salary cap.

Speaking of Donte Kent, his salary actually changed since the last salary cap report but rather than doing an adjustment it was just easier to have his fall out of the top 51 and then announce the change. Because he spent the year on the Reserve/Injured List (IR), Kent’s base salary for 2026 is less. It had been reported as $1.005 million, but since he does not have a year of service, it drops to $885 K.

They were actually a couple other small adjustments through salaries since the last report which didn’t add up to much, but I thought I would mention them. Long snapper Cal Adomitis did have a salary reported as $1.1 million but that has now been adjusted to $1.075 million. Ben Skowronek did have his cap number listed as $2.765 million but that has since been tweaked to $2.79 million.

Additionally, there has been some switching up of some digits in the base salary for Broderick Jones. It was report reported his base salary for this year was $1,571,232 which helped contribute to his $5,344,207 cap hit for this year, but now it’s being reported that his base salary has the seven and the one switched to $1,517,232 and gives him a slightly lower cap hit of $5,290,207. With these various things, they generally come about as more financials get corrected, even though these last two salaries were from contracts signed prior to 2026.

It should also be noted that there is no report on the breakdown of salaries for Brock Hoffman or Travis Homer at this time. When they become available, another salary cap update will be published.

Here is the approximate breakdown of the Steelers salary cap space after some of the most recent deals by my own calculations. The numbers below are strictly the salary cap hit for each player in 2026.

Steelers salary cap space heading into free agency: Approximately $44.03 million

Asante Samuel Jr.: Reported $4 million; After displacement: -$3.115 million
Cole Holcomb: Reported $1.9875 million; After displacement: -$1.1025 million
Jamel Dean: Reported $5.5 million; After displacement: -$4.615 million
Darnell Savage Jr.: Reported $1.2625 million; After displacement: -$0.3775 million
Michael Pittman Jr.: *UPDATED* Reported $8.866667 million; After displacement: -$8.981667 million
Cam Heyward: Reported $5.475 million savings; No displacement: +$5.475 million
Esezi Otomewo: Reported $1.75 million; After displacement: -$0.865 million
Ricco Dowdle: Reported $3.75 million; After displacement: -$2.865 million
Cam Johnston: Reported $1.075 million; After displacement: -$0.19 million
Jack Driscoll: Reported $1.2625 million; After displacement: -$0.2575 million
Announced Cap Adjustment: Reported: +$3.652778 million
Jaquan Brisker: Reported $5.5 million; After displacement: -$4.495 million
Sebastian Joseph-Day: Reported $3.65 million; After displacement: -$2.645 million
Workout Bonuses: Held until unused is refunded in the fall: -$0.9792 million
Ryan McCollum: Reported $1.3325 million; After displacement: -$0.294137 million
Brock Hoffman: No Report
Travis Homer: No Report

Approximate salary cap space: Approximately $23.4 million

Keep in mind the Steelers can save almost $6 million if they prorate the bonus for Jalen Ramsey at the end of August. Some places have taken that into account already, but I’m still going to wait for now.

So how does my salary cap number compare to those reported by the major salary cap websites?

According to overthecap.com (OTC), the Steelers are $27,051,445 under the salary cap as of Monday night. OTC has a somewhat lower cap hit for Jalen Ramsey for 2026, but otherwise we have the exact same number.

Another credible salary cap website is spotrac.com, which has the Steelers at $30,338,285 as of Monday night. They have an even lower cap number for Ramsey at this time than OTC, and they do not count the workout bonuses.

While the Steelers are going to need cap space for a number of things this offseason, it doesn’t have to be at this time. The Steelers will need as much as an additional $18.5 million, with around $14.4 million not needed until September. The Steelers are estimated at this time to need about $4.25 million to sign their rookie class after displacement based on their current draft picks. Right now the estimated salary of every projected Steelers pick in the fourth round or higher would land in the top 51, but that could still change if higher contracts are added. Also, the Steelers are probably not going to make all 12 picks in the slots they are estimated for right now. Expenses in September include when they need to account for all 53 players on the roster (about $1.9 million), sign their practice squad (should come in around $4.5 million or less), and have some carryover in order to do business throughout the year (about $8 million) such a s practice squad elevations and signing other players. But even taking these things into effect now, which they do not need to do as there are other moves which could be made to save some cap space, the Steelers have plenty to still be active in free agency. Plus, there could be the extra $5.92 million that might be available from Jalen Ramsey’s contract which I mentioned before that could help in that regard.

Does something not make sense? Curious about any of the specifics? Leave your questions in the comments below and I will check in and do my best to answer them.