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PITTSBURGH – Ben Roethlisberger wants to return to the Pittsburgh Steelers for the 2021 season, team president Art Rooney II said Thursday, but for that to happen the team and their veteran quarterback must make tough decisions.
With the salary cap shrinking due to declining income from the COVID-19 pandemic, Roethlisberger’s $ 41.2 million cap for 2021 is untenable, Rooney said.
“Ben wants to come back,” he said on his end of season zoom call. “We left this door open.
“I think we’ve been frank with Ben in letting him know that we can’t get him back under the current contract. I think he understands that we have work to do there. We will have more conversations. internally, and I’ll have more conversations with Ben, and we’ll need to find out what the maximum number is to finalize some of these decisions. “
After the loss to the Cleveland Browns, Roethlisberger, 38, said he would speak with his family before making a concrete decision to return for 2021, but said he was hopeful the Steelers would if it was. what he decided to do. But will Rooney and the team give him the opportunity to write his own end to a career steeped in history?
“With Ben, we owe it to him to have a conversation about how he wants to end his career, and we intend to do that.”
To get relief from the cap and give Roethlisberger at least one more season to end on his own terms, the Steelers could ask the quarterback to take a pay cut in the final year of his contract. The Steelers have already prorated his contract’s $ 22,250,000, leaving just $ 19 million – $ 4 million in base salary and a $ 15 million bonus – to work with a pay cut or restructuring. . The most likely option is an extension and restructuring that extends part of the cap reached to the 2022 season.
“I think those are discussions we’ll have with Ben and his rep,” Rooney said of the possibilities of changing Roethlisberger’s contract. “It takes two to figure this out and if we can be okay with what he wants. We’ll just have to see.”
As it stands, the Steelers have three quarters on the roster for the 2021 season: Roethlisberger, Mason Rudolph and newly signed Dwayne Haskins. But, Rooney acknowledged that they need to add another caller, which could put them in the draw for one of the big quarterbacks available if they can set the cap to be accommodating.
“I think when you look at our venue we’ll have to add someone to the venue this offseason,” Rooney said. “We will look at all the opportunities we have to make it happen.”
Determining Roethlisberger’s future is just the first step in many tough decisions and discussions for the Steelers this offseason.
General manager Kevin Colbert’s annual contract will be in effect after the draft, and although Rooney said the two have had extensive discussions about Colbert’s future, nothing is official.
“I have a feeling Kevin is going to come back, but who knows,” Rooney said.
Coach Mike Tomlin’s contract spans at least the 2021 season with an option for the 2022 season, and in evaluating his head coach, Rooney said he believes Tomlin will lead the team in the future. .
“We will be addressing Mike’s contract with him over time this offseason,” he said. “I will just say that I feel comfortable saying that he will be our coach in the future. … In terms of the job he has done, we did not finish as we would like. The game playoff is hard. to analyze … you just have to turn the ball that way, you’re not going to win a lot of games. I don’t see how you attribute that to coaching preparation. I think l ‘team started this match prepared. “
Rooney also said that if it all depended on him, he would enter the 2021 season with the same roster the team had in 2020.
“If I had my druthers I would say if I could have the same roster next year I would,” he said. “Obviously this is not the case.”
With the team’s salary cap situation – the Steelers are estimated at nearly $ 30 million with 48 players signed, according to ESPN’s roster management system – the re-signing of free agents like Bud Dupree and JuJu Smith-Schuster will be difficult, if not nearly impossible.
“It’s fair to say this will be the toughest salary cap challenge we’ve had in a long time, maybe ever,” Rooney said.
But the first step in determining the rest of the list is to determine Roethlisberger’s future.
When asked bluntly if he wanted Roethlisberger to return, Rooney paused and said he wanted him back, but offered no guarantees on the quarterback’s future.
“I think we would like to see Ben again for another year if it can work,” he said. “But like we said, there is a lot of work to be done if that can happen; it may take decisions on both sides to make it happen.”
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