{"id":945219,"date":"2026-07-14T10:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T10:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/945219\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T10:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T10:27:16","slug":"mason-mccormick-could-be-in-same-contract-limbo-in-2027-as-keeanu-benton-is-now-ray-fittipaldo-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/945219\/","title":{"rendered":"Mason McCormick Could Be In Same Contract Limbo In 2027 As Keeanu Benton Is Now, Ray Fittipaldo Warns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many Steelers beat writers speculate Keeanu Benton won\u2019t see an extension this offseason<\/a>; could Mason McCormick follow in his footsteps? Pittsburgh had successful draft classes in 2023 and 2024, when they selected Benton and McCormick. That\u2019s a good problem to have, but a problem nevertheless.<\/p>\n

The problem is, of course, that you have to either find ways to pay everybody or let some go. And the Steelers may have some hard decisions to make on that front not just for the 2023 class, but 2024 as well. They already signed three of their five major players from 2023 with Joey Porter Jr. coming up. But Keeanu Benton could be the odd man out\u2014and Mason McCormick could be for the 2024 class.<\/p>\n

The same year the Steelers drafted McCormick in the fourth round, they also added first-round T Troy Fautanu and second-round C Zach Frazier. Both of them are more high-profile linemen and are already high-performing players. Not that McCormick hasn\u2019t done his job, but there are simply limits to what you can do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s approaching elite status or anything like that, so they\u2019re not gonna pay him top-of-the-market guard money. I think if he\u2019s willing to come back on a mid-level type of a deal\u201d, Ray Fittipaldo said on the North Shore Drive podcast<\/a> of Mason McCormick, he would earn \u201cprobably in that $8-12 million range unless he goes off and becomes All-Pro\u201d. But that\u2019s probably an underestimation<\/a>, especially as the salary cap rises. And especially assuming he moves to left guard this year.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

McCormick has started 31 games, all in a row since his fourth game, since the Steelers selected him in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft. He has been a consistent, solid player, but draws more comparisons to Ramon Foster than David DeCastro. If the Steelers could afford to keep all of their current starting linemen, though, they would certainly love to. Given that they already lost Isaac Seumalo, though, they know that\u2019s not always possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of put that one in the category of Keeanu Benton\u201d, Fittipaldo said of where Mason McCormick and his future in Pittsburgh would fall relative to the 2024 draft class. \u201cHe\u2019s a good player, probably like to have him back, but you can\u2019t re-sign everyone. And I think McCormick is probably gonna be in that realm, because you know you\u2019re gonna have to pay [Troy] Fautanu. More than likely you\u2019re paying [Zach] Frazier, too. You\u2019d like to keep McCormick, but I think they have other, higher priorities before him before they try to tackle that one\u201d.<\/p>\n

Aside from the three offensive linemen, the Steelers also drafted Payton Wilson and Roman Wilson. The latter is still finding his way, but the former is more or less a starter. Depending on how he grows in 2026, he could be a high priority to re-sign, as well. Especially assuming Patrick Queen does not return. So if the Steelers have at least three starters to re-sign next year from the class of 2024, McCormick could be at risk of being the one left behind. Of course, the decision on Troy Fautanu will come a year later thanks to his fifth-year option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many Steelers beat writers speculate Keeanu Benton won\u2019t see an extension this offseason; could Mason McCormick follow in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,1500,21418,6,520,57,2360,7827,426,691],"class_list":["post-945219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-football","tag-keeanu-benton","tag-mason-mccormick","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-pittsburghsteelers","tag-ray-fittipaldo","tag-steelers","tag-trending"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116917858679040203","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}