It’s been an offseason of overhaul for the Seahawks offense so far, including opting to trade Metcalf to Pittsburgh rather than reach agreement on a contract extension, so here’s an overview of how much Metcalf’s extension will cost the Steelers.
It has been an offseason of turnover on the offensive side of the ball for the Seattle Seahawks, with the team moving on from several members of the coaching staff, as well as quarterback Geno Smith and wide receivers Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf.
Lockett remains an unsigned free agent, while Geno Smith and the Las Vegas Raiders are presumably working towards an agreement on the much debated contract extension Smith has been looking for since last offseason. In contrast, the Pittsburgh Steelers already have Metcalf’s four-year extension signed and on file with the league office, and now the specifics of that contract are available on OverTheCap.com.
Jumping right into the details, here is how the contract breaks down by season:
- 2025: $11M ($5M fully guaranteed base salary, $6M signing bonus proration)
- 2026: $31M ($25M fully guaranteed base salary, $6M signing bonus proration)
- 2027: $32.5M ($20M base salary, $6M signing bonus proration, $6.5M roster bonus)
- 2028: $34M ($23M base salary, $6M signing bonus proration, $5M roster bonus)
- 2029: $41.5M ($30.5M base salary, $6M signing bonus proration, $5M roster bonus)
Metcalf’s contract with the Steelers is pretty cut and dried. There are no per game roster bonuses or workout bonuses. It’s simply a signing bonus, base salaries and then a roster bonus due on the Monday after the start of the new league year in each of the last three seasons of the contract.
The purpose behind the March roster bonuses is to force the team to make a decision regarding whether to keep Metcalf on the roster or move on early during the offseason each year, rather than having any cap casualty debates or discussions that drag out through the offseason and into training camp. Once the team is not only on the hook and has paid out the roster bonus, moving on becomes far more unlikely.
With that in mind, given that there is no guaranteed money in Metcalf’s contract after the second year, here is how much dead money the Steelers would incur by moving on in each year of the contract:
- 2026 (after 2025 season): $49M dead cap
- 2027 (after 2026 season): $18M dead cap
- 2028 (after 2027 season): $12M dead cap
- 2029 (after 2028 season): $6M dead cap
- 2030 (after 2029 season): contract expired, no dead cap.
With those numbers in mind, here is how much Metcalf will have cost Pittsburgh in terms of cap space should the Steelers opt to move on before the contract expires after 2029:
- 2026 (after 2025 season): 1-year, $60M ($60M APY)
- 2027 (after 2026 season): 2-years, $60M ($30M APY)
- 2028 (after 2027 season): 3-years, $86.5M ($28.833M APY)
- 2029 (after 2028 season): 4-years, $114.5M ($28.625M APY)
- 2030 (after 2029 season): 5-years, $150M ($30M APY)
The question many fans will have at this point is how the contract works out to an average of $30M over five years when it was widely reported to have been signed at an average salary of $33M per year. The answer to that question is that the Steelers have the benefit of taking on the final year of Metcalf’s 2022 extension with the Seahawks that is set to pay him $18M in 2025, and the $33M per year only represents the new money portion that extends the contract for four years after the 2025 season.
Putting those pieces together, the $132M extension on top of the $18M Metcalf was already set to earn in 2025 yields the $150M total contract value, and thus the $30M average per year as far as the Steelers are concerned. In short, Pittsburgh spent its second round pick to buy down the $21M of dead cap the Seahawks will recognize on the cap this season, and in turn will reap that benefit in the coming seasons.