While it sounds like Ben Roethlisberger is willing to meet the financial demands of owner Art Rooney II, those impending contract discussions still left some question marks about the quarterback’s future in Pittsburgh. Well, it sounds like Roethlisberger will have a say in roster construction, another indication that he’ll be back next season. Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports (via Twitter) that Roethlisberger is set to meet with Rooney and head coach Mike Tomlin next month to discuss “what roster plans they have for the 2021 season.”
“Ben knows he has more left, but having key players back, like (Maurkice) Pouncey, will be important,” agent Ryan Tollner told Dulac (Twitter link). “Ben’s contract won’t hold things up. We told them immediately after the season we will make any necessary adjustment to help their cap situation in 2021.”
Earlier this week, we learned that Rooney wanted to reduce Roethlisberger’s $41.2MM cap hit for next season. We learned later that day that the quarterback’s camp was willing to oblige, and these recent quotes from Tollner seem to emphasize that they won’t be haggling over a contract. It sounds like the main sticking point will focus on what the Steelers do with the rest of their roster.
The organization is already projected to be more than $30MM over a $175MM cap, though it is not known how far the cap will drop from this year’s $198MM ceiling. Wideout JuJu Smith-Schuster is set to hit free agency, and the Steelers front office will have to trim some more salaries (like, potentially, Pouncey’s) before the start of next season. While any hypothetical Roethlisberger restructuring would undoubtedly help the cause, the organization will still have to make tough decisions elsewhere on their roster.
I’ve heard from several sources that Pouncey is retiring. I’m guessing not official yet.
Ditto. Even this site announced it.
He is waiting for that changes they do and if he feels they have one more shot.
Sign a ten year extension for league minimum and spread what is left of old signing bonus over that time. Players say they just want to win and have made hundreds of millions, put up or shut up and retire! And I am a life long, 50 year, Steeler fan and a huge Ben fan.
The league would step in and invalidate that type of deal, much like the NHL did on several deals signed in the early 2010s. It would be a clear attempt to manipulate the salary cap.
Owners have made billions. Why are you chastizing the players? There’s a salary cap, but there’s nothing stopping an owner from spending freely to acquire more (and better) coaches and talent evaluators. Why won’t they do this????? Don’t they want to win????
btw, congratulations on finding a way to chastize a player for wanting to make money instead of ‘wanting to win’ in a story about a player willingly taking less money to help his team win. Takes a special kind of dense-ness to accomplish that.
Easy, rct. You have a point, but so does he. Seriously, neither of y’all aren’t wrong exactly. He mostly just offered a solution for circumventing the cap-one that unfortunately would be rejected by the league outright. Neither owners nor players can manipulate the cap legally, and both are bound by it. It’s just something they both have to deal with. And both owners (teams, really, moreso than the owners themselves) and players take advantage when they can.
The Steelers’ playoff window has closed. All Roethlisberger can do for them in 2021 is mess up their 2022 draft position. Better to release Ben and get on with the rebuild.
You have no idea what you are talking about. If they can keep their defense together (and mainly healthy) and pick up a RB, they are right back as a top contender to KC.
Now, Can they beat KC? No, but nobody can
Raiders did!
Yet KC is in the Super Bowl
oh does the regular season suddenly matter?
You worry bout your Broncos who didnt even eff n make playoffs!
lmao, Tomlin has literally never had a losing record. They started the season 11-0. What on earth are you talking about?
Wow how far down has an organization sank when you want a 38 year old hasbeen come in and have a say in the personnel? BTW one that has whined about everything in the past and is a rapist? Just unbelievable. This won’t end good for Steeler fans.
Getting advice from a player who has been concussed a few times is a great idea. Rooney and Tomlin just have to do the exact opposite of everything Ben suggests and the Steelers win stay on top.
Hardly a hasbeenhes a hall of Famer who ” has still got plenty in the tank” when the team wins but when they lose it’s all his fault & hes washed up, that’s crap& true fans of the sport or any know it, theyve said the same bout Brady orbress or peyton too his last year.And only some jealous hack would bring up the old rapist crap that was proven to be a gold digger thinking she’d found Eldorado when ben said hello to her in a club sought off
Tear it down and start over.
Seriously, if hed be allowed to call his own plays more often we likely wouldnt be having this discussion, & stop alway blaming the QB when ball is intercepted, someone has to catch it too so they should play tape before putting that on thier stats to see if it thier fault or not cause usually it’s not actually.Bens still a top 5 qb & tough as nails & tougher than a couple of these new hot shots too that are just 1 good hit away from a career ender , just ask RG3
A top 5 QB??? Whoa. Not in 2020.
He’s no longer a Top 5 QB but he is still good enough to get them to a Super Bowl so long as they keep their defense together and figure out how to run the ball effectively.
Yep. This. Getting a new OC where the idea of a running game isn’t 3-yd slant patterns the whole game will help things. Great young receiving core. If they can keep the D together and they play big, they will still contend. You don’t start 11-0 by accident. 3-0,4-0 maybe…but not 11-0.
The rape stuff has gotten so old and tiring. If he raped a woman he’d be in prison. What woman gets raped and then settles out of court. If it was there….. he wouldn’t be anymore. Unfortunately it’s shadowed his entire, wonderful career and I feel he has at least one more year left. Let him call the plays when they get in trouble and get him a damn running back. Please don’t ask a 38 year old man whose been beat up and sacked for many years with intense elbow surgery to throw 45-60 times and then say he’s washed up when he throws a pick. If he feels like he’s sharing the responsibility with a good running back, he’ll be night and day different. They were 8-8 two seasons ago. Ben comes back and they went 11-0. Huh? He’s leveling out now, but he’s easily a top 5 quarterback! People know it too, they just don’t want to support him because of the allegations so early in his career.
There’s really no benefit if Ben decided to retire, get traded, or released the Steelers would still tack on $22.5 million against the CAP. Easier if he came back another year and took a pay cut. If he retired they would have to go out and try to find another quarter pay that quarter backs salary plus the dead money (unless they drafted a qb). There isn’t any other active QB on the Steelers that’s worth starting. Haskins may eventually, but you never what you’re going to get from him. He still has room to improve, but is he going to improve his work ethic?
Ben is not goign to work for the “league minimum” but he could go down to the Brady minimum which was like 7 million. He can get a signing bonus of like 5 million on a 3 year contact and spread it over 3 years. It will reduce the cap from the 47 million and everyone will be happy. A QB still needs to have some incentive and 500k league minimum is not going to work.
Well, that Brady number you’re referring to was quite some time ago. But of course your point stands as a proportional figure. Brees sort of did this this past season, and Ben looks like he is doing the same thing now. He’ll take, as you’ve described, the “good but aged QB” minimum. This of course only works if you are with a team that you can trust to put forth a real effort to win, which obviously the Steelers will do.