The start of the 2024 NFL league year is now just over two weeks away. Kicking in at 4 PM on Wednesday, March 13, all teams must be under the salary cap by that time. With time varying on when teams know the amount of the upcoming salary cap from the end of January (2023) to only a week before (2022), getting the salary cap total will affect many decisions of each franchise.

On Friday, teams were reportedly informed by the NFL that the 2024 salary cap will be set at $255.4 million. This information came from NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.

The NFL announced today that the 2024 Salary Cap will be $255.4 million per club, with an additional $74 million per club payment for player benefits, which includes Performance Based Pay and benefits for retired players.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 23, 2024

Coming in at $255.4 million, the cap is now $30.6 million more than 2023 and about $13 million more than the projected total from earlier this offseason. So websites who report on the salary cap such as Over The Cap (OTC) and Spotrac were estimating team’s cap space just days ago, their numbers have now significantly changed.

Now that the number is known for this coming season, exactly where do the Steelers stand when it comes to the salary cap? What are all the other factors involved to determine how much space the Steelers have when it comes to retaining their own players over the next two weeks or signing new ones in mid-March?

For one, the number is not as simple as $255.4 million. The Steelers also have rollover from the 2023 season where they did not use all of their salary cap space and it is credited to them in 2024. Earlier this month, Yahoo! Sports reported the expected rollover for all 32 teams with the Steelers coming in at $3.022 million.

Another number which contributes to the salary cap is where the NFL sets aside workout bonuses paid to players if they participate in offseason programs. This money comes out of a team’s salary cap, but any that is unused will be credited back, typically during training camp.

Once all these numbers are known, it comes down to the top 51 salaries of players currently under contract for the Steelers which count towards the current salary cap. Additionally, any dead money from players must also be subtracted.

With all these things explained, here are the current numbers for the Steelers 2024 salary cap as reported by OTC and Spotrac.

2024 salary cap: $255.4 million

Estimated adjusted salary cap:

Over The Cap: $257,740,192 ($2,340,192 in rollover)
Spotrac: $258,422,440 ($3,022,440 in rollover)

Current Dead money for 2024:

Over The Cap: $8,017,965
Spotrac: $8,017,967

Estimated current 2024 salary cap space:

Over The Cap: $7,382,955
Spotrac: $8,474,099

As I’ve stated many times before, neither one of these sites is perfect. OTC currently has the Steelers with a smaller rollover. As for Spotrac, their biggest problem is they are missing three players with futures contracts listed on Steelers.com who fall in the top 51 salaries. Taking those two things into consideration, the two numbers are fairly close.

As the offseason gets closer to the new league year, if you read any of my previous salary cap articles I start off with a specific estimated cap space. The reason I prefer to keep the salary cap estimated is because of small differences in specific dollar amounts in reported contracts which don’t really become a big factor when looking at the big picture of the salary cap. At this time I’m not ready to lock in my number to start the 2024 season because of several other factors such as the exact rollover and workout bonuses. But if I were forced to do so, and assuming the rollover estimates are accurate, that number would be around $8 million (UPDATE: After the release of Mason Cole, that number moves to about $12 million).

Looking at this number, it is much better than it was believed to be 24 hours ago. Even though the Steelers would be cap compliant at this moment, there is still more work to be done. The Steelers also will need to account for signing their draft class, their practice squad in the fall, and have some money to take into the season. While these are things that will need to have room under the salary cap, it doesn’t have to be generated at this time.

More importantly, the Steelers need to be able to conduct business in free agency. With several other players who could become cap casualties now that the Steelers know the exact amount they are looking for, the Steelers salary cap space will be an ever-changing entity. To make sure you are keeping track of all the changes, make sure you continue to check in at Steel Curtain Network for all the latest updates on the Steelers 2024 salary cap.