2. JuJu Smith-Schuster: $5.6 million in dead money
Despite now being a member of the Kansas City Chiefs, JuJu Smith-Schuster is still technically costing the Pittsburgh Steelers $5.6 million in dead cap space in 2022, according to Over the Cap. This is unusable money that will count against the team’s total cap space this year.
What’s the reasoning for this? The Steelers added voidable years onto JuJu’s contract in an effort to lower his 2021 salary. Though it saved them some money last year, Kevin Colbert kicked the can further down the road (and won’t even be around to see the consequences).
The voidable years pushed money into the future that will count against the cap. Sadly, Pittsburgh won’t see a single snap out of Smith-Schuster moving forward, but he still counts $5.6 million against the team’s cap space.
You shouldn’t make moves like this unless you think your team has a real shot to be Super Bowl competitors. Pittsburgh was obviously okay with doing so. Now JuJu is gone and the team is left to pick up the pieces. It’s not a great situation when the second-most money for an offensive player in 2022 is being allocated to a player that isn’t even on the roster.