Report: Steelers, Antonio Brown making ‘significant progress’ on extension

[Born2Steel]

Still, it would be nice to add 1 FA pass rushing defender worthy of a big contract. $100Mil on offense, and $70Mil on defense?

[AtlantaDan]

Basically explained by what everyone said above. We have the best skill position triplets in the league and a top 3 O-line at worst. Of course thats going to be expensive. Artie Burns, Sean Davis, Javon Hargrave, Ryan Shazier, Stephon Tuitt all on rookie contracts. Gay and Harrison are being paid like aging veterans and Cockrell we got off the street after final cuts and got him for pretty much the minimium.

Agreed - only cap payouts above $5 million on defense for 2017 are Heyward ($10.4 million) and Mitchell ($8.1 million)

Big ticket payments on offense above $5 million are Ben ($18.2 million), Brown ($13.6 million), Bell ($12.4 million), Pouncey ($11 million), DeCastro ($11 million), Gilbert ($7.3 million) and Green ($6.2 million) - Foster is a bargain on the last 2 yeras of his contract at $3.6 million for 2017 and 2018

[Psycho Ward 86]

Agreed - only cap payouts above $5 million on defense for 2017 are Heyward ($10.4 million) and Mitchell ($8.1 million)

Big ticket payments on offense above $5 million are Ben ($18.2 million), Brown ($13.6 million), Bell ($12.4 million), Pouncey ($11 million), DeCastro ($11 million), Gilbert ($7.3 million) and Green ($6.2 million) - Foster is a bargain on the last 2 yeras of his contract at $3.6 million for 2017 and 2018

Ugh Mitchell's cap number just grinds my gears. Potentially re-signing Timmons kind of does too, but im 50/50 on that one. We at least have good depth at ILB and S. We can get cheaper, more effective alternatives on the FA market and potentially even the draft to plug and play those guys to fill those slots instead of biting the bullet.

Cut Mitchell, sign Tony Jefferson. Ive read that DJ Swearinger and Jefferson both played really well for the cardinals at safety last season, and with Tyrann Mathieu at the other safety position, they wont be keeping all 3. Even signing Jefferson to a similar deal to Mitchell will be an excellent upgrade.

Let Timmons walk, give Williams his opportunity to start. He's already done that a lot his entire career anyways. He looks better in coverage than people give him credit for, and if push comes to shove we can sign a good young rising ILB like Kevin Minter for probably the same price as Timmons would have cost anyways

[pczach]

Realistically I would be surprised to get more than 2-3 additional years of Ben.

Ben will be 37 (almost 38) at the end of the 2019 season and that is the last year of his current contract.

I am guessing the AB (and if it happens the AV) extension are tied more to the length of time required to amortize the signing bonus portion of the contract for cap purposes than anticipation Ben will be around through 2021

I don't necessarily mean that Roethlisberger is going to play for another five years. I think by signing people to these five year deals it's also going to give the organization the chance to restructure things and move things along depending on what happens with Ben. If he retires in a couple years additional years on these contracts will allow them to shuffle things around and move things to either help them save money to acquire more talent, but also to possibly get out from underneath a contract if Ben retires early and they want to start rebuilding again.

I should have better clarified that.

[GBMelBlount]

Basically explained by what everyone said above.

We have the best skill position triplets in the league and a top 3 O-line at worst.

Of course thats going to be expensive. Artie Burns, Sean Davis, Javon Hargrave, Ryan Shazier, Stephon Tuitt all on rookie contracts. Gay and Harrison are being paid like aging veterans and Cockrell we got off the street after final cuts and got him for pretty much the minimium.

You would think with the talent on offense we would be the highest scoring team in the league by a touchdown a game.