The Pittsburgh Steelers have three big contract extensions coming up. Here are my detailed number predictions for each new deal.
Now that we are entering the longest stretch of the football calendar year without any important dates, all eyes will be on possible contract extension talks for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The market was reset for several positions with new deals during the 2022 offseason, and these could be used as a baseline for agents during negotiations.
The Steelers have three key players who are entering the final year of their deals: Minkah Fitzpatrick, Diontae Johnson, and Chris Boswell. Here are my detailed predictions for the contract extensions each of these players could receive in the near future:
Minkah Fitzpatrick
Contract Prediction: 5 years, $90M ($18M per year), $42M guaranteed
It is going to be very interesting to see where Minkah’s numbers fall for his extension. Will he top Jamal Adams’ deal to become the highest-paid safety in the NFL, or will he fall in line just below that number?
During the 2022 offseason, Saints safety, Marcus Williams, earned a 5-year, $70 million deal with $37 million guaranteed, via Spotrac.com. This gives him annual earnings of $14 million. He did all of this despite no Pro Bowl or All-Pro accolades.
Fitzpatrick’s deal is certainly going to come in over this number. While many would argue that the Jamal Adams deal was a bad investment (and it has been), that won’t matter in negotiations, and Minkah has clearly been the better player. Considering his age (25), production, and two First-Team All-Pro honors, I think Fitzpatrick does indeed become the highest-paid safety in the NFL at $18 million per season.
Diontae Johnson
Contract Prediction: 4 years, $77M ($19.25M per year), $40M guaranteed
It was wild to see the going rate of quality wide receivers this past offseason. Christian Kirk — despite playing the vast majority of snaps from the slot and never earning a 1,000-yard season — received a massive 4-year, $72 million deal recently.
This number of $18 million per season, sent cap evaluators through a tailspin. As a result, Diontae Johnson has been projected to make anything between $18-26 million in yearly value.
I’ve gone back and forth on this. I do believe that Johnson is a better player than Kirk with a recent Pro Bowl selection and a 1,000-yard season under his belt. However, I don’t think other teams are going to value him like A.J. Brown — who just received $25 million per year on his new deal.
Though size doesn’t matter to the Steelers at the wide receiver position, many teams would prefer not to have a 5’10 1/2”, 183-pound receiver on the outside. Meanwhile, D.J. Moore, Mike Williams, and Chris Godwin each received $20 million in yearly value on their new deals, but they are bigger receivers with multiple 1,000-yard seasons. I think Johnson comes in just under this number.
Chris Boswell
Contract Prediction: 3 years, $14.7M ($4.9M per year), $12M guaranteed
This isn’t a possible contract extension that anyone seems to be talking about, but Chris Boswell deserves his bag just as much as the next guy. Since his down season in 2018 immediately after earning his second contact with the team, Boswell has since been electric over the past three years — converting 92.3 percent of his field goal attempts during this span.
Boswell has been so good, in fact, that Justin Tucker is the only kicker we can say is definitively better than him in the NFL. The ‘Wizard of Boz’ is on track to be one of the most accurate kickers in NFL history at this rate.
Atlanta’s Younghoe Koo signed a contract that made him the second-highest-paid kicker in the NFL behind only Tucker. I think that Boswell’s money comes in just above this based on his impressive three-year sample and Pro Bowl background.
I’ll be interested to see how accurate these numbers are when these three players ultimately get their deals. The new contract extensions around the NFL during the 2022 offseason give us a pretty good estimate of what we could be looking at for these three Steelers players soon.