We heard earlier Thursday that Ben Roethlisberger had come to an agreement with the Steelers, and now we have the details on the restructure.
Roethlisberger reduced his compensation from $19MM to $14MM for this season, a source told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). He then spread the cash payment out into future seasons, saving the team about $15MM in cap space for this season in total. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network then tweeted the full breakdown. He’s getting a $12.925MM signing bonus, and a $1.075MM base salary for 2021.
As expected, the new pact has four voidable years that will void after this season, so it technically now runs through 2025 for cap purposes. The Steelers were in a bad cap spot, so they desperately needed this move to have any flexibility this offseason.
There had been a lot of discussion about whether it would simply be a restructure, or if Roethlisberger would take a drastic pay-cut, and in the end it wound up somewhere in between. After a whole lot of drama, the issues is officially put to rest, and Big Ben will be Pittsburgh’s starting quarterback for one more ride.
Which direction does Pitt go in the draft; OL, RB, trade up for a QB, or keep building that D?
RB and OL
That line was run over by Cinny on that night game and the Browns in the playoff game.
PGH. “Pitt” refers to the University of Pittsburgh. Just FYI.
Yes. Best available/impact when their name is called. But they need all three, with OL being the biggest need I’d say. If Jones is available mid-round, I’d say trade up. He may be a sleeper and a good replacement for Ben, who may only have one year left, if that.
Pitt is the University of Pittsburgh. It is the Pittsburgh Steelers not Pitt. That’s like calling Toronto Tor or Chicago Chi.
Who cares…LOL also means ‘laughing out loud’. If everyone really LOL’d as much as we abbreviate that in text in real life we would all sound like a bunch of psychopaths walking around “laughing out loud”….just everyones new way of typing LOL 😉
How far are they allowed to go with voidable years? I’m assuming there is a limit, otherwise teams would do 10-20 year “extensions” and spread the Dead Money down to < $1M/year…
5 year maximum for voidable years
The Steelers have a horrible system for the contracts. Every year they go through the same thing thanks to the salary cap guru Omar. You cannot keep writing checks when you have no money for it. The Steelers are position to loose several key free agents because they are strapped due to the poor contracts THEY have agreed to pay!
All of their most expensive free agents are guys they should let walk anyway.
The Steelers literally use up 70% of a guy’s career usefulness while only paying 30% of his career earnings.
That they have to restructure year to year means little since the NFL doesn’t punish cap shenanigans.
Bringing back Ben and not starting the rebuild is a mistake. Roethlisberger is finished man. He is washed up. Pittsburgh is the only team willing to let this guy take up a roster spot as a starter.
They had no choice, he would have been like 30 something million in penalties
Everyone keeps saying that. Apparently “washed up” means throwing more than 30 touchdowns in a broken offense with no one carrying it but a geriatric quarterback with a busted elbow throwing 40 times a game-who, again, still managed to carry the offense with all of that.
I know a couple of teams with more reliable receivers, better o-line, and a dependable run game who could have taken Roethlisberger’s production last year quite happily. Denver, for example, or Miami. Maybe the Steelers should use this last year or two of Roethlisberger to fix their team so it can even be ready for the new quarterback, instead of listening to fans’ impatient kneejerk hot takes?
Exactly. Give him some support. The defense is elite. Give Ben a good system. Dead last in the run. Thankfully randy land is gone. It was night and day when Ben called the plays. They actually moved the ball.
At least he didn’t sign a huge contract, saddle the team’s cap and demand to be traded because the team sucks because it can’t afford to pay anyone else.