For the second straight season, the Pittsburgh Steelers are among the league leaders in cap space. While we don’t have an exact number yet, Pittsburgh should be in the top ten in overall cap space. Amongst the league, they should be safely inside the top ten in overall cap space.
All of this, and the team is likely to add even more. Jonnu Smith might end up being one of the easiest cuts in a while. Jalen Ramsey could be shown the door, and various other names could be moved around to save cap space.
Currently, Over the Cap has the Steelers at $45 million in cap space. They can easily clear up another $20 million from various different moves. That could set the team up to, on paper, be one of the biggest spenders in free agency.
However, don’t start writing big checks yet, as the Steelers may not be the big spenders as we thought they would be.
If anything, this could end up being one of the more muted offseasons for the Steelers in a while. I wouldn’t expect a lot of huge moves.
The Pittsburgh Steelers won’t be big spenders during the 2026 offseason
While the cap space will be ample, a lot of those funds have been pre-spent. This team can already earmark a lot of those funds to different placeholders.
Let’s start with the quarterback room. Unless a rookie or Will Howard is the starter, there will be a healthy amount of cap space needed to go to securing a quarterback.
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Aaron Rodgers is the most likely option, and if signed, it will be to another one-year deal. I’d expect the value to be similar to last year, which is cheap, but all of that has to hit your books this year. That means a contract like what Rodgers got last year will eat into roughly a third of their available cap space.
Let’s talk about the players looking for new deals. The most deserving is Chris Boswell, and while a new deal will make him the highest-paid kicker in the league, given that he is already well compensated, the impact on his 2026 cap hit will be minimal (or even decrease).
The issue is the 2023 draft class. This was a fantastic class from top to bottom, but one of the issues with great drafts is having to pay them. All of those cheap rookie deals could see a significant uptick in cost this year.
Joey Porter Jr. feels like the most likely name to get paid. He will be looking at top five cornerback money more than likely, and his cap hit should see a sizable increase this year.
Keeanu Benton, Darnell Washington, and Nick Herbig are right behind him with their arms outstretched. I’d assume at least one of them gets a new deal, and there is a real possibility that all three have new contracts by the time the season starts.
That will take a massive bite out of the current expected cap space.
Yes, the Steelers are still in a good spot cash-wise, but a lot of those funds are already spent. For those of you daydreaming about big free agency spending, you may need to keep dreaming.