Expected salary cap costs of Steelers 2019 third-round draft picks

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We take a look at the projected four-year rookie deals Diontae Johnson and Justin Layne can expect from the Steelers.

The Pittsburgh Steelers stayed put with their scheduled selections in the third-round of the 2019 NFL Draft on Friday, adding Toledo wide receiver Diontae Johnson and Michigan State cornerback Justin Layne on day two. And while neither player is set to receive the sort of rookie contract that Devin Bush will earn as a first-round selection in 2019, both will earn well over $1 million in their first season with the Steelers.

Thanks to a sliding scale for rookie contracts agreed to under the terms of the CBA, the two players should already have a good idea of how much being drafted by the Steelers will pay them, and using figures generated by OverTheCap.com, we can now also work out how much the pair will cost Pittsburgh over the length of their rookie deals as well.

Johnson is projected to earn a total of just over $3.65 million as part of a four-year deal that will include a signing bonus worth around $1.1 million, while Layne will receive a deal worth closer to $3.44 million that includes a signing bonus worth around 922,000. Like all players selected in round three of the draft or later, both will receive the league minimum as a base salary in each year of their rookie contract.

With salary cap hits of just $778,355 and $725,544 respectively in 2019, neither player will consume much salary cap space this season. And when taking displacement into account, Johnson will actually only use up just over $200,000 in additional cap space this year, while layne will only use up around $150,000.