One of the more traditional NFL franchises, in terms of offseason aggression, the Steelers appear to recognize the urgency their recent defensive struggles have created. They are making calls about a possible trade-up from their No. 20 spot, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. The Steelers boast big needs at cornerback and linebacker. It is believed the Steelers will be able to land a corner, perhaps the first corner to go in this draft, at 20. But if Pittsburgh wants to make a big move for a linebacker, it will likely need to acquire a top-10 pick. Devin White is viewed at this point as a top-10 lock, and the Broncos have been the team most connected to Devin Bush at No. 10.
A look at the details on recent deals from around the NFL:
- Ben Roethlisberger, QB (Steelers): Three years. $80MM, $67.5MM guaranteed. Effectively two-year, $68MM extension. $37.5MM signing bonus, $30MM injury guarantee. $2.5MM base in 2019, $21MM salary + bonuses in 2020, $19MM in 2021. Steelers have an out after two years. Twitter links via ESPN’s Adam Schefter and CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora.
- Ra’Shede Hageman, DT (Falcons): One year. $735K, $15K signing bonus. Details via D. Orlando Ledbetter of AJC.com.
The Steelers and Ben Roethlisberger have agreed to a three-year contract extension, according to Gerry Dulac of the Post-Gazette (on Twitter). The new pact will keep Big Ben in place through the 2021 season. 
Once finalized, the deal will pay well north of $30MM per year for 2020-21, placing him in the top-three highest paid quarterbacks for those two years, a source tells ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler (on Twitter). In total, he gets a $63MM base value on his two new years, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
Prior to the new deal, 2019 was set to be the walk year for Big Ben. Now, he has a contract that should take him through the end of his career.
Whether Roethlisberger is a good teammate or not has been a hot topic of late, but his on-field production continues to be top-notch, as he set career-highs in completions (452), pass attempts (675), passing yards (5,129), and touchdowns (34) this past season.
Big Ben started all 16 games last year, the first time he had done that since the 2014 season. The Steelers had a down season as a team and didn’t make the playoffs, but Roethlisberger led the league in passing yards. On the flip side, he also led the league with 16 interceptions.
Advanced metrics lauded Roethlisberger’s work as well, as he finished fourth in Total QBR and eighth in adjusted net yards per attempt. Meanwhile, Roethlisberger ranked fifth in Football Outsiders‘ DYAR, which measures value over a replacement level player, and eighth in DVOA, meaning he was effective on a per-play basis. His status in the locker room, whatever it might be, was not a factor in contract talks.
The Steelers, of course, narrowly missed the playoffs in 2018 despite Big Ben’s impressive statistics, and the team is now without Antonio Brown. But Pittsburgh has never had a losing season with Roethlisberger at quarterback, and despite the trade of Brown, the club should once again compete for the AFC North crown.
Roethlisberger was set to carry a cap charge of $23.2MM this season. The extension should lower that figure and give the Steelers a little more breathing room heading into the draft and the later stages of free agency.
The Steelers may be nearing a massive extension for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, and as Mark Kaboly of The Athletic writes, a re-up for cornerback Joe Haden may not be too far behind.
In a piece that explores whether the Steelers should spend their first-round pick on a cornerback, Kaboly says that an extension for Haden is “looming.” After a long run with the division-rival Browns, Haden is entering the last year of the three-year pact he inked with Pittsburgh in August 2017. He is owed $10MM for the 2019 campaign, and although he is now 30, his two-year stint in Pittsburgh has gone about as well as could be expected. And, given Pittsburgh’s struggles in acquiring/drafting quality cornerbacks, it makes sense that the club would want to extend its relationship with Haden.
Haden has started every game that he has played in with the Steelers, and he has reestablished himself as a shutdown cover corner despite drawing the No. 1 WR on opposing offenses. This year, he will be joined by former Chiefs CB Steven Nelson, who signed a lucrative free agent deal with Pittsburgh in March.
The team is still high on youngsters like Mike Hilton and Cam Sutton, but keeping Haden on board for at least the next couple of seasons may be one of the Steelers’ priorities over the coming months.
The Steelers are working hard to extend quarterback Ben Roethlisberger prior to the draft on Thursday, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link). Big Ben has one year left on his current deal, but the club wants to keep him “well beyond” the 2019 season. And, according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com (via Twitter), contract talks are moving in the right direction.
We recently heard that Roethlisberger was not necessarily pushing for a new contract, but that discussions between player and team were ongoing. The two sides have been discussing a re-up at least since January, and given that Roethlisberger could earn upwards of $60MM in the 2020-21 campaigns if the team used the franchise tag on him, that figure could be a primary benchmark in negotiations.
Whether Roethlisberger is a good teammate or not has been a hot topic of late, but his on-field production continues to be top-notch, as he set career-highs in completions (452), pass attempts (675), passing yards (5,129), and touchdowns (34) this past season. Advanced metrics lauded Roethlisberger’s work as well, as he finished fourth in Total QBR and eighth in adjusted net yards per attempt. Meanwhile, Roethlisberger ranked fifth in Football Outsiders‘ DYAR, which measures value over a replacement level player, and eighth in DVOA, meaning he was effective on a per-play basis. His status in the locker room, whatever it might be, does not figure to be a factor in contract talks.
The Steelers, of course, narrowly missed the playoffs in 2018 despite Big Ben’s impressive statistics, and the team is now without Antonio Brown. But Pittsburgh has never had a losing season with Roethlisberger at quarterback, and despite the trade of Brown, the club should once again compete for the AFC North crown.
Roethlisberger is set to carry a cap charge of $23.2MM this season, and an extension would lower that figure and give the Steelers a little more breathing room.
- While defensive line and linebacker prospects figure to populate the ESPN ticker early in Thursday night’s draft, secondary pieces may not come off the board until the second part of the opening round. One of the teams in need of cornerback help may have a preference. Mike Tomlin “loves” Temple’s Rock Ya-Sin, King writes. The Steelers have a linebacker need too but did sign Mark Barron to pair with Vince Williams. Their 2016 first-round investment of Artie Burns has not paid off, so Pittsburgh’s No. 20 spot may well be a cornerback destination. Ya-Sin, who played at Presbyterian (S.C.) prior to playing one season at Temple, visited the Steelers this month.
Antonio Brown‘s offseason has produced numerous headlines, that spree continuing after his arrival in Oakland. But not a ton of clarity emerged on what other offers the Steelers received for their perennial All-Pro wide receiver.
The Raiders swooped in after the Bills’ brief talks regarding Brown ended without a deal, landing a player on course for the Hall of Fame for third- and fifth-round picks. Interested teams had issues with Brown’s demand for a new contract, one of which apparently was ready to submit a much better proposal to the Steelers.
Brown’s financial demands stopped at least one team from offering a first-round pick, Jeremy Fowler and Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com report. Had the 30-year-old wideout been available without seeking another new contract, the ESPN duo notes Pittsburgh may well have acquired an extra first-round pick — presumably in 2019. However, teams knew a month prior to the trade that acquiring the mercurial wideout meant negotiating a new contract.
A slew of suitors emerged for Brown, in addition to the Bills, the Eagles, Saints, Titans and Redskins among them. The Bills were believed to be ready to swap first-rounders with the Steelers and part with two mid-round picks. That is the best known offer for Brown, and Fowler reports the Steelers felt strongly about the Bills’ proposal. The Patriots were indeed interested as well but the Steelers held firm on their stance not to do a deal with them.
After some convincing, the Raiders agreed to amend Brown’s contract. The Steelers dropped their asking price to those third- and fifth-rounders, with Kevin Colbert optimistic about the teams trying again — after some failed early talks on March 8 — to get a deal done. Brown ended up with $30MM in additional guarantees. The Steelers hold the Raiders’ No. 66 and No. 141 overall picks.
Moritz Boehringer is back in the NFL. The German tight end, who became the first European player ever to be drafted without playing American college football back in 2016, has been allocated to the Bengals as part of the league’s international pathway program, per Darin Gantt of ProFootballTalk.com.
Boehringer’s assignment to the Bengals completes this year’s program. Each season, teams in two divisions get a roster exemption to develop a player from another country. The player can be the 91st man on offseason rosters, and can be an 11th player on practice squads during the regular season. Boehringer was drafted by the Vikings, but spent his rookie season on the practice squad without ever appearing in a game. He came into the league as a receiver, but has since transitioned to tight end. He was with the Bengals as part of this program last year, and will be back in Cincy in 2019.
Here’s a list of the rest of the players selected to participate:
Baltimore Ravens
- FB Christopher Ezeala
Buffalo Bills
- RB Christian Wade
Cleveland Browns
- DB Tigie Sankoh
Miami Dolphins
- DT Durval Neto
New England Patriots
- TE/FB Jakob Johnson
New York Jets
- RB/WR/KR Valentine Holmes
Pittsburgh Steelers
- TE Christian Scotland-Williamson
The AFC North participated last year, but this year the AFC East is taking the place of the NFC South. Notably, Efe Obada was a participant in the program with the Panthers last year, and he went on to make Carolina’s 53-man roster last season. He was re-signed this offseason.
Each of the players assigned to the AFC North were with those teams last year. Scotland-Williamson is a former rugby player, while Boehringer, Sankoh, and Ezeala all played American football overseas before making the leap.
All of the AFC East players are new to the program. Given the Patriots’ track record of finding hidden gems, Johnson will likely end up leading the league in receiving yards at some point. Johnson was signed from the German football league. Neto was playing football in Brazil before being added to the Dolphins. Wade and Holmes are both former prominent rugby players.
- While other quarterbacks like Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers have recently campaign for new deals, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has not taken the same tack, as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes. Roethlisberger, 37, is entering the final year of his contract: he’s due a $12MM base salary and will count for $23.2MM on Pittsburgh’s salary cap. He’s still engaged in ongoing negotiations with the Steelers, and as Florio notes, Roethlisberger would be due more than $60MM over the next two years if the franchise tag was deployed, so that could be a starting point in talks.
Today’s minor moves:
Arizona Cardinals
- Signed: OL Brant Weiss (Alliance of American Football)
Chicago Bears
- Re-signed: CB LB Isaiah Irving, DE Roy Robertson-Harris (exclusive rights free agents)
Kansas City Chiefs
- Re-signed: DB Jordan Lucas (restricted free agent)
- Re-signed: K Harrison Butker, DT Justin Hamilton (ERFAs)
Los Angeles Chargers
- Re-signed: CB Trevor Williams (RFA)
Los Angeles Rams
- Re-signed: S Blake Countess (RFA)
- Re-signed: DE Morgan Fox, DB Dominique Hatfield, WR KhaDarel Hodge, WR JoJo Natson, DB Kevin Peterson (ERFAs)
New York Giants
- Re-signed: WR Corey Coleman (RFA)
Oakland Raiders
- Re-signed: WR Marcell Ateman, K Daniel Carlson, T Justin Murray (ERFAs)
Pittsburgh Steelers
- Re-signed: TE Xavier Grimble (RFA)
San Francisco 49ers
- Re-signed: DB Greg Mabin (ERFA)