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If Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is to return for the 2021 NFL season, he will need to restructure his contract so the Steelers can have more flexibility on the salary cap as they build the roster around him.
In order for the front office to get down to business and complete this task in an ideal time frame, Steelers president Art Rooney II has given Big Ben a specific time in which to rework his deal.
Ben Roethlisberger must restructure his contract by March 17 to play in Pittsburgh
Bob Labriola, of the official Steelers website, reported on what Rooney had to say about Roethlisberger’s prospects for 2021, giving him a day one ultimatum of the league’s new year to have the contract finalized:
“We made it clear that we would like him to come back, but we had to do something with the contract. We are coming to this point now when the time is right. We have a better idea of where the salary cap is, which is an important part of the decision. […] Hopefully we’ll find something before that, but certainly if you mean there’s a tough deadline, it would be March 17th. Steelers President Art Rooney II on Ben Roethlisberger’s contractual situation
Pittsburgh would take a cap of more than $ 41 million in the final year of Roethlisberger’s contract if he doesn’t rework it or if he simply takes a pay cut. It’s prohibitively expensive even for a future Hall of Fame who helped the Steelers win their first 11 games last season.
But Big Ben’s 2020 decline, capped by a one-time playoff effort against the Cleveland Browns, combined with zero playoff wins in the past four years, paint grim prospects for his immediate future.
Can Roethlisberger keep the Steelers atop AFC North in 2021?
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