For a minute, in this off-season, it looked like the Pittsburgh Steelers could actually leave Ben Roethlisberger due to his increase in the salary cap.
In the end, Big Ben suffered a $ 5 million cut in payment to return for another year with a reworked contract.
During a conversation with fans on Thursday, Steelers President Art Rooney II said the club wanted the 39-year-old back, as long as the money worked. It didn’t seem that performance was an issue for the president of the Pittsburgh franchise.
“We wanted Ben back,” said Rooney, through the team’s official website. “The key to that was being able to restructure his contract in a way that would allow us to retain Ben and be able to sign some other players. Ben cooperated with that, was willing to make some changes to his contract, and that allowed us to keep him in team this year which has always been our goal.
“I thought Ben had a very good year last year for someone who was coming out of an arm surgery. I hope he has an even better year this year with another year under his responsibility in terms of recovering from that arm surgery. It was a Very serious surgery and we were not sure how he would be able to recover from it. He did a great job in rehab and we are excited to have him back this season. “
Roethlisberger is coming out of a season in which he completed 65.6% of his passes for 3,803 yards, the lowest number in more than 15 games since 2008, with 33 TDs and 10 INTs. The Steelers started 11-0, largely thanks to the defense, but the offensive inconsistencies were finally overcome, with the 1-4 drop in the final stretch, including a playoff loss to rival Cleveland.
With a diminished defense due to several big name losses due to the wage cap situation, Pittsburgh needs Big Ben to improve in 2021 to have any chance of returning to the postseason.
Rooney also touched on several other topics in his fan chat:
- On the possible extension of TJ Watt: “We will certainly try. TJ has another year of contract. We certainly see TJ as a key player in the future. I can guarantee that we will do everything we can to keep TJ on the roster beyond this year. is the goal.
- On hiring JuJu Smith-Schuster when it looked like WR was destined to go free: “JuJu was an important part of our attack last year and it has been in recent years. We were certainly hopeful that we would be able to hire JuJu from The only thing about JuJu is that he really wanted to go back and that certainly helped a lot. I’m glad I got him back. I’m looking forward to him having another good year for us in 2021. “
- In the Steelers racing game, which finished last in the yardage in 2020: “We need to be much better in the race. Certainly, we don’t want to see the Pittsburgh Steelers being the last in the league in racing again. Never. I think it’s something in which our coaches are focused and we’ll be looking for ways to improve on the draft. It’s something we have to fix and we’re working on it ”.
- On the 17-game schedule expected to be enacted by the NFL owners: “The 17-game schedule I think will work well. Obviously, this year will be the first year for that, so we will have a chance to see how it goes. I think we’re going to narrow the preseason into a game. It’s going to be a similar type of schedule in terms of timing, but we’re just going to turn one of the preseason games into a regular season game, which I think we’d all be grateful for. with that, I hope it works and I’m looking forward to seeing what it looks like in 2021. “
- On his optimism for having fans back in the stands this season: “I think we will. I’m a little optimistic about it. It’s still early, it’s just March, so we’ll see how things go. I’m optimistic, we’ll have fans. Frankly, I’m optimistic that we will have a full stadium by the fall. I hope everyone is there getting the vaccine and will be able to get into crowds and things again. Hopefully, we will be back to beauty close to normal in the fall. We will all say our prayers and keep the fingers crossed. But I’m optimistic about that right now. “