Just recently, the Pittsburgh Steelers added a seasoned player to their lineup by signing tight end Donald Parham Jr. to a one-year contract. As of Monday, more specific details surrounding the contract have come to light.
The NFLPA’s salary cap page and Over the Cap reveal that Parham’s contract is set at the minimum salary reflective of his experience in the league. This means he’ll earn a base salary of $1.17 million, and notably, there’s no signing bonus included.
What’s interesting about Parham’s contract is that it qualifies as a veteran benefit contract. This classification results in a salary cap charge of $1.03 million, which is the baseline salary for players with two credited seasons in the NFL. There doesn’t seem to be any portion of Parham’s salary that’s guaranteed, which aligns with expectations for such contracts.
Financially speaking, Parham’s arrangement doesn’t considerably affect the Steelers’ 2025 salary cap, particularly when you consider the Rule of 51, where the smallest cap charge is $840,000. Once the top 51 displacement accounted for this, $190,000 of the salary cap space was utilized to bring Parham on board.
Before his move to Pittsburgh, Parham spent all of the 2024 season honing his skills on the Denver Broncos’ practice squad. His NFL journey began in 2019 with the Detroit Lions, joining them as an undrafted free agent from Stetson. After a brief tenure with the Lions, he was picked up by the Washington Redskins, where he started off on their practice squad, though he was released just a few weeks into that season.
Parham’s career took an interesting turn when he played for the Arlington Renegades in the XFL in 2020. Later that year, he signed with the Los Angeles Chargers in April and became a consistent presence on their roster over four seasons. During his time with the Chargers, he recorded 67 catches for 764 yards and found the end zone 11 times across 47 regular-season games, starting in 23 of them.
Last August, right before the 2024 season commenced, Parham and the Chargers parted ways. Throughout his NFL career, he has accumulated 1,223 offensive snaps in regular-season games, along with an additional 98 snaps on special teams.
