{"id":717834,"date":"2026-06-05T22:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T22:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/717834\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T22:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T22:56:09","slug":"steelers-ravens-bears-nfls-most-expensive-defenses-for-2026-season-revealed-amid-otas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/717834\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers, Ravens, Bears, NFL&#8217;s Most Expensive Defenses for 2026 Season Revealed Amid OTAs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens and Chicago Bears comprise the three most expensive defenses this season, per NFL analyst Warren Sharp.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">On the Steelers&#8217; side, superstar edge-rusher T.J. Watt holds a $42 million cap number to lead the team, per <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/overthecap.com\/salary-cap\/pittsburgh-steelers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Over the Cap<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Watt is an eight-time Pro Bowler and four-time All-Pro with 115.0 career sacks and an Associated Press Defensive Player of the Year honor (2021).<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Nine of the Steelers&#8217; top 16 paid players are on the defensive side of the ball. That figure does not include linebacker Nick Herbig, who signed a <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/48950830\/nick-herbig-lands-four-year-100-million-extension\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">four-year, $100 million extension<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Quarterback Lamar Jackson is No. 1 on the Baltimore Ravens&#8217; cap ledger, but the next five players are all on defense. They include four-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro linebacker Roquan Smith and new edge-rusher Trey Hendrickson, the four-time Pro Bowler who arrived via free agency from the Cincinnati Bengals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Bears are up next. Seven of their top eight players on the cap are defensive stars, including Montez Sweat (league-leading 10 sacks last year) and two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Jaylon Johnson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">This year&#8217;s season kicks off on Sept. 9, when the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks play the New England Patriots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens and Chicago Bears comprise the three most expensive defenses this season, per NFL&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-717834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}