About an hour ago
Team president Art Rooney II said Ben Roethlisberger wants to return to the Pittsburgh Steelers for an 18º 2021 NFL season.
The Steelers would like to have their franchise quarterback back for another year, too, but on one condition:
They have to negotiate around a $ 41.25 million salary limit that is scheduled to hit the books in March.
“Ben wants to go back,” said Rooney II on Thursday in a video conference with reporters from the area. “We left that door open. We have been frank with Ben in informing him that we could not have him back under the current contract. He understands that we have some work to do there. ”
Although Roethlisberger is scheduled to earn $ 4 million in base salary plus a $ 15 million on-call bonus in March, that $ 19 million in cash does not constitute half of the quarterback’s salary cap. Because of a prorated signing bonus of $ 37.5 million that Roethlisberger received in 2019 when he negotiated his current contract, in addition to a $ 9.75 million restructuring in future years, the $ 41.25 million limit is the highest for any NFL player in 2021.
Steelers already have $ 215 million in salary obligations for the 51 best players hired for next season. The salary cap was $ 198.2 million in 2020 and could reach $ 175 million next year because of the pandemic that has drastically reduced revenues.
“I think it’s fair to say that this is probably going to be the most difficult salary cap challenge we’ve had in a long time, maybe never,” said Rooney.
If the Steelers release Roethlisberger or he retires – which would be unexpected, given his position to Rooney that he wants to play in 2021 – his contract would still include $ 22.5 million in “dead money”. The key for Steelers is to reduce Roethlisberger’s capitalization in 2021 to as close as possible to $ 22.5 million.
That means the Steelers would have to sign Roethlisberger, who turns 39 in March, an extension that is retroactive to lower his cap, or would have to convince him to sign a new one-year contract for less than $ 19 million. that he is due this year.
“It takes two to find that out,” said Rooney. “If we can agree with what he wants or vice versa, we will just have to see it.”
On his return from right elbow surgery, Roethlisberger completed 65% of his passes and shot for 3,808 yards with 33 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions. Roethlisberger, however, released six of his interceptions in his final six games, and he was intercepted four times in the Steelers’ 48-37 defeat to Cleveland in the wild card round.
“We would like to see Ben back for another year, if that works,” said Rooney. “There is a lot of work to be done to see if this can happen.”
The Steelers also have Mason Rudolph, who is entering his fourth season, in the cast. Rudolph was the reserve last season after making eight appearances in 2019, while Roethlisberger lost 14 games due to an injury to his right elbow.
“We are comfortable that he is a quarterback who can play in this league and start in this league,” said Rooney of Rudolph.
The Steelers also hired Washington’s former first-round pick, Dwayne Haskins, for a future deal, but purchases may not be made in the quarterback market. Joshua Dobbs, the third quarterback of last year, is an unrestricted free agent, and Devlin “Duck” Hodges signed a future contract with the Los Angeles Rams.
“When you look at our room, obviously we’re going to have to add someone to the room here this off-season,” said Rooney, “and then we’re going to look at every opportunity we have to do that.”
Joe Rutter is a staff writer for the Tribune-Review. You can contact Joe by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .
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Sports | Steelers / NFL