2024 Salary Cap Increase + Steelers Release C Mason Cole

The Steelers are officially cap compliant!

On Friday, the NFL announced that the 2024 salary cap will be a whopping $255.4 million per team, up 13.6 percent from last year. This gives teams an extra $30 million+ to work with. According to Adam Schefter, the record-setting cap increase is the result of the NFL repaying deferred money from the Covid pandemic, and a significant increase in media revenue.

The Steelers were near cap compliance when they released Mitch Trubisky and Chuks Okorafor last week, but the extra $30+ million gets them well within the cap. 

Wrote earlier this week that one of the Steelers’ combine priorities will be evaluating offensive tackles and centers. That obviously becomes a main focus with the release of Mason Cole, who was a great locker room vet but struggled with consistency last season.

— Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) February 23, 2024

That wasn’t it though. The Steelers freed up an additional $4.75 million on Friday, when the team announced that they have released C Mason Cole.  

Cole started every game for the Steelers the last two years. His time with us left a sour taste in the mouths of many fans as most of us have been calling for his job for months now; turns out Omar Khan was listening. I don’t love Pro Football Focus’ (PFF) grading system, but many people take it as gospel, and Mason Cole was graded 57.3 for the 2023 season. Looking the grades over, it seems like PFF considers an ‘average’ grade to be between 70-80. So, clearly, Mason Cole underperformed in a big way, and a huge part of that was the low and erratic snaps. 

When Steeler fans woke up this morning, center was a huge need for us to address this offseason. However, many of us, myself included, figured they could hang on to Cole in a backup role. Clearly, that is not the case, so look for the Steelers to load up the interior of the offensive line early in the draft; many folks are touting West Virginia’s Zach Frazier as a day one starter at center, making him an appealing option. We could also use some of that extra salary money to bring in a veteran, although all signs are pointing to them finding their starter in the draft. What yinz think? Let me know on the socials!

The offseason is heating up! I love it! HERE. WE. GO. 

Subscribe to receive email updates about new posts and follow me on socials!