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When running back Jerome Bettis returned for another year with the Steelers, it made sense. They had a team that was close to winning the Super Bowl, and that year, they did.
While the Steelers and defender Ben Roethlisberger continue to contemplate the possibility of another year together, here’s a free piece of advice for both: Don’t do this.
The 2021 Steelers is not close enough to a Super Bowl to make another year worthwhile. The 2021 Steelers has many problems, thanks to the convergence of an ever-decreasing salary cap and years of kicking the roof.
Already facing a minimum calculation of $ 22.25 million related to the past hocus-pocus cap played under the Roethlisberger contract, the Steelers need to find out how much bigger the Big Ben cap number can be for 2021 while still having a competent team around them .
He said, “I don’t care about my payment this year.” Even if he reduced his pay from $ 19 million to the league minimum of $ 1.075 million, he would consume $ 23.325 million in limit space. As previously described, an extension that converts your payment of more than $ 1.075 million into a subscription bonus allows Ben to receive his $ 19 million, while maintaining the maximum number at $ 26.73 million – assuming a three-year extension.
The Steelers are apparently waiting to do something for a very simple reason: they don’t know what the 2021 ceiling will be. Which means they don’t know how much money they will need to hire their other players or to attract free agents from whom they may be. interested parties.
The problem for Steelers comes from the fact that on March 19, Roethlisberger wins a $ 15 million bonus on the list. Therefore, the Steelers will have to act quickly with Ben’s contract, once they know what the limit will be. Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said this may not happen until hours before all the teams are under him.
The best move, assuming the Steelers maintain Roethlisberger, would be to work in advance a series of interim agreements based on the final ceiling number, with different salaries or restructuring if it is $ 175 million (it cannot be less), $ 176 million, $ 177 million, $ 178 million, and so on, up to the 2020 number of $ 198.2 million. Then, once the limit is set, Ben’s business is redone based on the predetermined revision of the contract.
This apparently did not happen. Maybe I won’t. Perhaps the Steelers are simply looking for the right way to move on with Roethlisberger, without being seen as villains.
In fact, if they agree with the objective assessment that a race to the Super Bowl is unlikely in 2021 (given the presence of teams like Chiefs, Bills, Ravens and – yes – Browns), it makes a lot of sense to remove Band-Aid in one movement and start discovering the post-Ben future of the franchise.
Whatever the plan, they will need a good plan. With Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow and Baker Mayfield at AFC North, the Steelers can quickly get lost in the dust of their division if they try to move on with Mason Rudolph or Dwayne Haskins or whoever they can find at the free agency.
Nevertheless, the decision to keep Roethlisberger can lead to regret. Even if he remains healthy all year round, it could be a long year for a Steelers team, which will look very different than it was in 2020, due to the current shrinking limit and the freedoms of the past limit that the Steelers had taken. It may make more sense to see what Rudolph and / or Haskins can do in 2021 and then look for the next Ben in the 2022 draft, if necessary.