It’s been well over a week ago since the Pittsburgh Steelers acquired CB Jalen Ramsey from the Miami Dolphins as part of a multiplayer trade that included TE Jonnu Smith being added to the team as well and S Minkah Fitzpatrick being sent back to the team that drafted him. With the trade officially hitting the NFL transaction sheet earlier this week, the reworked contract details for Ramsey finally surfaced on Tuesday afternoon.
This latest round of information comes courtesy of the NFLPA salary cap page.
For starters, and as was previously reported, the Dolphins had already paid Ramsey the $4 million roster bonus he was due in March. The $100,000 workout bonus Ramsey was due this past offseason was also the Dolphins’ responsibility. Additionally, the Dolphins agreed to eat another $3 million of the $18.98 million option bonus that Ramsey is scheduled to earn in 2025. Ramsey was also scheduled to earn a base salary in 2025 of $1.255 million and another $765,000 in per game roster bonuses.
Ramsey’s base salary of $1.255 million transferred over to the Steelers. As for the the remaining $15.98 million option bonus that Ramsey had coming due in 2025, the Steelers took that, his $765,000 roster bonus he was scheduled to earn, and another $1.5 million from the scheduled base salary he was scheduled to earn in 2026 and turned all of it into the signing bonus. That signing bonus was prorated out over five years, which included one of the three void years that Ramsey had in his contract that transferred over from the Dolphins. The prorated bonus amount for 2025-2029 is $3.649 million.
Ramsey’s 2025 salary cap charge will now be $4.904 million. That is made up of his $1.255 million base salary and his 2025 bonus proration amount of $3.649 million.
As a result of the trade and the moving around of money in Ramsey’s contract, the Steelers will now pay Ramsey $19.5 million in cash in 2025. The Dolphins are paying Ramsey another $7 million in 2025 to get him out of Miami, so he will now pocket $26.5 million in total cash between the two teams. Not a bad outcome for Ramsey.
As for the rest of the years of Ramsey’s contract beyond 2025, once he arrived in Pittsburgh, the Steelers converted all of his future option bonus amounts in 2026 and 2027 of $8.135 million and $8.835 million, respectively, into base salaries. Additionally, the Steelers converted Ramsey’s future roster bonuses and workout bonuses of $765,000 and $100,000, respectively, into base salaries in the 2026, 2027, and 2028 years of the contract. That’s not a bit surprising when it comes to the roster and workout bonuses because the Steelers really like to work those out of transferred over contracts as soon as they can.
Ramsey’s contract transfers over from the Dolphins with three $2 million roster bonuses in place for the 2026, 2027, and 2028 years. Those are non-guaranteed, and each is presumably due in March of their respectively listed years.
If you are scoring at home, Ramsey’s non-guaranteed base salaries for 2026, 2027, and 2028 are now $17.5 million, $19.7 million, and 22 million, respectively. His scheduled cap charges for 2026, 2027, and 2028 are now $23.149 million, $25.349 million, and 27.649 million, respectively. After the contract voids in 2029, assuming Ramsey is still under contract then, there will be a dead money charge of $3.649 million.
The Steelers can obviously get out of the Ramsey contract after this season by merely cutting him before paying the $2 million roster bonus he is due in 2026 as there is not any guaranteed money in the contract past 2025. Cutting Ramsey before paying him his $2 million roster bonus in March would result in the Steelers having to eat $14.596 million in dead money. They could, however, designate Ramsey as a post-June 1 cut and that would result in a 2026 dead money charge of $3.649 million with the remaining $10.947 million being charged off as dead money in 2027.
As of right now, the extra void years that run from 2029 through 2031 remain in Ramsey’s contract. Realistically, those void years aren’t likely to come into play because Ramsey is likely to play just the next two seasons, at the most, for the Steelers. Those void years could come into play if the Steelers restructure Ramsey’s 2026 money he is currently due. The Steelers, however, are not big fans of prorating signing bonus money into voided years. They did use one of the void years this year, however.
Ramsey is now set to earn another $19.5 million in cash in 2026, so either he will be worth that money after the 2025 season, or he won’t be. It should be a very easy decision for the Steelers to make next March when Ramsey’s $2 million roster bonus is due.
An interesting fallout related to the trade for Ramsey and the jettisoning of Fitzpatrick to the Dolphins is the cash and cap offsets. Fitzpatrick was scheduled to earn $15.5 million in cash from the Steelers in 2025 prior to him being dealt to the Dolphins. As previously posted above, Ramsey’s cash total for 2025 for the Steelers is now $19.5 million. Meaning, the Steelers upped their cash spending by $4 million as a result of those two players crossing paths as part of the recent trade.
As far as the cap offset related to Ramsey and Fitzpatrick essentially being swapped, that’s also easy to calculate. Fitzpatrick’s salary cap charge for 2025 while a member of the Steelers was set to be $22.355 million. The Steelers, however, are eating $6.855 million of that amount as dead money in 2025. Another $6.855 million will be on the books in 2026 as dead money as well. Those amounts are the previous bonus proration that was still on the 2025 and 2026 books for Fitzpatrick. As previously passed along, Ramsey’s new salary cap number for 2025 is $4.904 million.
Essentially, the swapping of Fitzpatrick for Ramsey cleared $10.596 million in 2025 salary cap space for the Steelers.
Before you go spending any of that extra cap space that was created, please keep in mind that the acquisition of Jonnu Smith in that recent trade with the Dolphins will eat up some of it.
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