On Ben Roethlisberger and Steelers, $ 19 million question lingers

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The Steelers want Ben. Ben wants the Steelers. The Steelers need to revise Ben’s contract. Ben is ready to do it.

But it still hasn’t been done.

Although Steelers president Art Rooney II recently told Steelers.com that the deadline for putting in place a revised deal is March 17, Rooney has not publicly said whether the Steelers have the intend to pay their longtime quarterback the $ 19 million he was due to earn. in 2021 via a restructuring that lowers his number cap, or if the Steelers try to get Ben Roethlisberger to respond to his recent “I don’t care about my salary at all this year” statement.

Roethlisberger’s camp also doesn’t say if the Steelers are trying to get Ben to take less. But why wouldn’t the Steelers at least give it a try?

Ben has $ 22.25 million against the cap whether or not he’s on the team in 2021. Everything he earns adds to that amount. The $ 19 million he currently owes puts him at a cap of $ 41.25 million. A restructuring that would be triggered by reducing his pay to the minimum base salary of $ 1.075 million with $ 18.925 million converted to a signing bonus would place the maximum number of 2021 in the upper 20s, with the final figure depending on the new years added. to the agreement. for purposes of spreading the signing bonus.

Reducing his salary could lower him even more, obviously. Until the Steelers and Roethlisberger strike a new deal that involves Roethlisberger making $ 19 million this year, the possibility looms that the Steelers will try to get him to take less.

As well as playing on his obvious desire to have enough space to allow the team to put competent teammates around him, there is a more pragmatic question to ask: Would another team pay him 19 million? dollars this year, if he was a free agent?

Regardless of whether Ben would play for someone else, the question is whether anyone else would offer him $ 19 million to play for this team. If the answer is no, then maybe it’s fair that the Steelers want him to take less.

Again, this whole issue is settled with a new contract that preserves his 2021 compensation package. Until then, it’s fair to wonder if anything more is going on between the Steelers and a quarterback who will be 39 in three days.