Steelers were top 10 highest spenders during 2022 free agency period

The Steelers don’t typically spend a lot of money in free agency, but here’s why they were among the top ten teams in spending during the 2022 offseason.

It’s very unusual to see the Pittsburgh Steelers as one of the top spenders in free agency in any offseason. This has never been their way. The Rooney family prides themselves on being able to draft well and retain their own players.

Obviously, this doesn’t always happen, but it’s firmly rooted in their philosophy and is what sets them apart from the rest of the league. However, we knew that the 2022 offseason was going to be a bit different.

In his final season as general manager of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kevin Colbert had more money to work with than he has ever had before. From the start of the 2022 free agency period until now, the Steelers spent a total of $141.79 million on free-agent contracts, according to Over the Cap

This number shows all the contracts free agents have signed since the end of the previous Super Bowl. The total money in these deals makes the Steelers the 10th-highest spending team this offseason.

The Jacksonville Jaguars took the cake with a whopping $328.93 million in total money spent — spending over $80 million more than the next highest team (the Miami Dolphins). On the other end of the spectrum. On the other end of the spectrum, the Giants, Lions, and Commanders each spent between $44 million and $48 million.

Where this gets really interesting is when we talk about guaranteed money. Over the roughly $142 million worth of contracts they handed out, the Steelers guaranteed just $45 million of this. In fact, 21 NFL teams handed out more guaranteed this year.

The Steelers didn’t spend big on one or two high-profile players (like I suggested they should). Rather, they divvied out their money to quality, youthful starters like James Daniels, Myles Jack, and Levi Wallace. Additionally, they signed a few capable players like Mason Cole and Damontae Kazee.

Remarkably, the Steelers are still 6th in the NFL in available cap space with over $20 million remaining. Pittsburgh could elect to roll some of this money over, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them make another quality signing before (or even during) training camp.

So how did the Steelers end up in this situation that was out of the norm for them?

Past decisions caused Steelers to have excess money in 2022

Some of their choices over the years have prevented the Steelers from retaining their own players. Pittsburgh couldn’t justify matching the Titans’ offer to keep Bud Dupree — especially knowing they had a more important edge defender in T.J. Watt who needed a contact.

In the same way, the Steelers lost DT Javon Hargrave during the 2020 offseason. As the team backloaded contracts towards the end of Ben Roethlisberger’s career to make a final run, they couldn’t afford to pay Hargrave — especially when Pittsburgh already handed big deals to Cameron Heyward and Stephon Tuitt.

Another reason why Pittsburgh had so much money to work with during the 2022 offseason is because of players they have missed on. While some teams handed out lucrative deals to former first and second-round picks over the years, the Steelers really haven’t had a lot of players who they needed to throw money towards.

While T.J. Watt earned the largest contract ever for a defender, former first-rounders like Artie Burns and Jarvis Jones were one-contract-and-done guys. Likewise, other players we thought were going to earn big deals (like JuJu Smith-Schuster) ended up underperforming, while others (like Terrell Edmunds) were retained on cheap contracts.

After years of backloading contracts and allocating great money to an aging quarterback, the Steelers finally had some real financial freedom during the 2022 offseason. Next year, Pittsburgh is projected to have