Will Ben Roethlisberger come back to the Steelers? Pittsburgh wants return, but contract stands in way

Vince McMahon mentioned it finest: It’s all about the money.

Actually within the closing phases of his profession, Ben Roethlisberger is coming into the final yr of his present contract with the Steelers, and plenty of expect “Large Ben” to return to the Metal Metropolis for not less than yet one more season. There may be, nevertheless, a large hurdle to clear with a purpose to make that occur, one which might trigger participant and crew to grapple this offseason: the cash he is owed.

“Ben needs to come back again,” crew president Art Rooney II said in his end-of-season Zoom call. “We have left that door open. I feel we have been up entrance with Ben in letting him know that we could not have him again underneath the present contract. I feel he understands we have now some work to do there.

“We’ll have extra conversations internally, and we’ll have extra conversations with Ben, and we’ll need to know what the cap quantity is to finalize a few of these choices. … However, as we mentioned, there’s numerous work to be performed if that may occur; there might must be choices on each ends for that to occur.”

That cap hit is a whopping $41,250,000 in 2021, however the crew owes Roethlisberger $19,000,000 within the upcoming season together with his base wage and roster bonuses included in that quantity. 

The Steelers have a number of key free brokers this offseason, together with go rusher Bud Dupree, wideout JuJu Smith-Schuster and left deal with Alejandro Villanueva, which means the Steelers are going to need to therapeutic massage their cap scenario to maintain the band collectively for yet one more run, in the event that they so select — and if Roethlisberger agrees to play ball on the contract scenario.

Roethlisberger, to his credit score, appears to be able to do no matter is important to maintain the Steelers completely happy:

Pittsburgh is coming off a wild-card spherical loss to the Browns after a 12-4 common season that had them flirting with an undefeated document by means of 11 weeks. Whereas Roethlisberger was definitely a a part of that success, some query his long-term viability as a starter, leaving Rooney and the Steelers’ entrance workplace within the uncomfortable scenario of getting to seek out the inheritor obvious at quarterback, maybe as early as this offseason.

“I feel whenever you take a look at our room, we’ll have so as to add any individual to the room this offseason,” Rooney mentioned, by way of ESPN. “We’ll take a look at all of the alternatives we have now to do this.”

Ben Roethlisberger contract

Roethlisberger is within the last season of his two-year, $68 million contract extension with the Steelers, and he carries a cap hit of $41,250,000 for 2021. Whereas the crew needs Roethlisberger again, that quantity is at present troublesome to navigate to re-sign sure key gamers and in addition make enhancements to the squad.

The most certainly consequence is that the crew and Roethlisberger restructure his deal in a manner that permits that $41,250,000 cap quantity to be unfold over the approaching season or two, dropping that quantity and making it simpler on the crew to work round monetary restraints.

Spotrac currently has the Steelers as well over the cap at nearly $30,000,000, which means they will need to make some key choices on contracts and the wish to fulfill the cap.