Ben Roethlisberger and Steelers President Art Rooney II met on Tuesday, according to Gerry Dulac from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The meeting reportedly “went well”, as Roethlisberger and Rooney no doubt discussed the quarterback’s future with the organization.
Roethlisberger, who will be 39 next month, has publicly expressed his desire to return to Pittsburgh for his 18th season. Last month, he told Ed Bocuhette of The Athletic that he is more than willing to adjust his salary to help the Steelers manage the ceiling situation.
“I want to do everything I can”, Roethlisberger said, “and I made it very clear to them from the beginning that it was my idea to basically help the team as I can this year.”
According to Spotrac, Roethlisberger has a base salary of $ 4 million, a bonus of $ 15 million (which is expected to be paid on March 19), while carrying a maximum limit of $ 41 million. As Joel Corry of CBS Sports noted last month, the Steelers put themselves in this position last March, when they lowered their limit from $ 33.5 million to $ 23.75 million, converting $ 19.5 million from their compensation $ 21 million in 2020 in a subscription bonus. Roethlisberger’s 2021 ceiling was increased by $ 9.75 million in the process.
“I think we have been frank with Ben in informing him that we could not have him back in the current contract and therefore I think he understands that we have some work to do there,” said Rooney II last month, via Jim Steel City Insider’s Wexell. “We will have more conversations. We will have more conversations internally. We will have more conversations with Ben. Obviously, we will have to know what the maximum number is at some point to finalize some of those decisions.”
Earlier this month, Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert was transparent when asked about Roethlisberger’s future.
“With Ben’s current limit number, some adjustments will have to be made,” Colbert said, via Dulac. “I hope there is a way for us to find out what is best for the organization. I hope he can see it and feel the same. There is a lot of work to be done.”
While it looks like they’re open to getting Roethlisberger back, the Steelers don’t seem to be building their 2021 team to better complement it. Since the end of the 2020 season, Pittsburgh has ceased to be offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner, who is close to Roethlisberger. The Steelers have also given no assurance that they will fire two of Roethlisberger’s favorite offensive teammates: receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and running back James Conner. And while it was not the team’s work, Roethlisberger’s closest teammate, pivot Maurkice Pouncey, announced his retirement earlier this month.
Unlike previous years, the Steelers are not adapting their team to better meet Roethlisberger’s needs. It is similar to what happened in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers, who last year cast Rodgers’ successor instead of a receiver in the first round. The Steelers are not pushing Big Ben out of the door, but it looks like they are making him choose between retiring, playing elsewhere or playing on a Steelers team very different from the one he was in 2020.
If Roethlisberger decides to move on, Colbert said the Steelers will prepare to play Mason Rudolph as a starter in 2021. That would give Pittsburgh a year to determine whether Rudolph – who is entering the last year of his contract – is or is not a Successor to Roethlisberger’s long term. There is also a chance that the Steelers will use their first-round pick in a quarterback. Pittsburgh, which is expected to have nine choices in the draft, may negotiate to acquire one of the highest-rated quarterbacks in this year’s draft, a scenario that CBS NFL Draft analyst Ryan Wilson represented in his most recent mock draft.