I saw a picture floating around that laid out a possible Juju contract that was only like $7 million on the 2021 cap, but averaged out to about $17 per season. It required that the Steelers guarantee MORE than just the first year however.
My point? There are ways to do all of their "shopping" even with super limited cap space. BUT they have to start doing stuff they have never done before with contracts. Voidable years. Guarantees beyond year 1. More salary, less signing bonus. Etc.
Honestly, it may be a good thing...apparently the Steelers and the Packers are the ONLY NFL teams that do contracts they way they currently do them. Might be good for the team to get used to using other salary cap tools as well as what they currently are accustomed to.
Take note this is his agent saying this. The story gets spicier.
Kinkhabwala: Ben Roethlisberger’s Camp ‘Would Be Absolutely Insulted’ If Steelers Suggested He Take A Pay Cut
https://steelersdepot.com/2021/02/ki...ake-a-pay-cut/
He doesn’t have to take a “paycut”. They can convert his roster bonus and extend him two years and that spreads the $15M roster bonus over 3 years (guaranteed) plus his $4M salary this season. That puts him at $9M on the books for 2021 (plus the $22M+). That saves $10M there for 2020. As far as the next two seasons salary...that’s negotiable.
Who knows...what if he plays 2021 the way he did the first half of 2020? Then they have him locked up for another season...lol.
Well maybe he'll shit the bed on the first 4-5 games this year rather than the last 4 or 5. You are going to get one or the other or both.
"Zeds dead baby, Zeds dead." - Butch
He does it every year in using up about four or five regular season games to warm up. Those are Ben’s preseason games, he just used them at the end of the season tin 2020-2021. As for the run game, it doesn't help that the Steelers continue to pick up rerun TE''s that can't block.
Last edited by Shoes; 02-26-2021 at 02:02 AM.
The trouble is, that our gold standard for TEs is Heath. He could do it all, plus he is incredibly smart. That’s a tough combination to replace. If you look around the NFL, very few teams have a TE like that. I would love for that to be a priority, but Heath was the last TE taken in the first, and as you said, we mostly grab reruns or draft late round projects that don’t work out. I don’t really know what the answer is, because every year we have many needs, and big, blocking TEs doesn’t seem to make it’s way to the top.
What made Heath special was his play and selflessness. There have been good TE's in every draft since 2015. Kittle was the 9th TE drafted in the 2017 draft, the scouts and Steelers missed the boat and drafted Dobbs. Many on this forum saw his value as a blocker and a complete TE long before draft day. I think he would have been a Steeler if Dan was alive and in control. The problem with todays Steelers is Dan Rooney had a good eye and feel for the game of football and Art doesn't.
Heath Miller was very good but let's not pretend he was ever in the category of Tony Gonzalez, Shannon Sharp, George Kittle, Travis Kelce, Gronk level.
I wish they would just get this all behind them already, either Ben is playing out his last year or he isn’t, but I am getting tired of all the speculation, would rather speculate on resigning other players and the draft and coaching changes.
Rooney Says Roethlisberger Played At High Level In 2020; Obstacles Are All Financial
By Alex Kozora
Posted on February 26, 2021
With Pittsburgh Steelers’ Team President Art Rooney II saying earlier this week he wants Ben Roethlisberger back for 2021, it’s no surprise to now know he believes Roethlisberger played at a high level this past season. In a new Steelers.com article interviewing Rooney, he recapped Roethlisberger’s 2020 performance.
“We think Ben played at a high level last year,” Rooney told Bob Labriola. “We won our division and set a franchise record for most consecutive wins to open a season, so there was a lot of good stuff.”
Like most other aspects of the team, the “good stuff” primarily came over the Steelers’ first 11 weeks, starting 11-0 for the first time in franchise history. Over that span, Roethlisberger completed more than 67% of his passes with 25 touchdowns and just six interceptions. He and the rest of the team faltered the remainder of the season, becoming the first team in NFL history to start 11-0 and still lose four regular season games. Over that final month, Roethlisberger completed just 61% of his throws with eight touchdowns to four picks. He then threw four interceptions in the Wild Card loss to the Cleveland Browns.
to read rest of article:
https://steelersdepot.com/2021/02/ro...all-financial/
I think the safest thing to do is ignore the increasingly "click-baity" headlines and anonymous quotes from some unknown team source that Adhiasidhfaishahsdff Kinkahdfjasjdfansdfbaj posts.
Honestly, when has the any of those "insiders from the team say" things actually been right? I seem to remember they were wrong during the Bell stuff. They were wrong during the AB stuff. They have always been wrong during the annual "Tomlin losses the locker room" stuff.
I get that all NFL teams leak. But the Steelers leak far far less than most and when it comes to Ben R...they have always been pretty good about having it sealed up. That is why Ben and his camp have always had to leak their version (the injury drama stuff).
My point (or at least I think it is a point) is that this is likely all over-heated nonsense from folks that think they know what they are talking about but don't. When Ben's camp starts leaking things that run counter to what Rooney is saying - that is when you know it has gone sour. Until then, likely people wanting to feel important but aren't.
Huh? This is how the Steelers forced out Troy and Ward and "retired" Polamalu. If Ben's dead cap hit wasn't so massive or if he was off his contract I think he would be gone. His dead cap is 22.25M.
This will be Ben's last year with the Steelers and I expect he will retire afterwards. HOF second ballot so 2028?
Second ballot? Really? A guy with two Superbowl wins, three appearances, over 60,000 passing yards, most likely 400+ TD passes and he's second ballot? The only knock on him would be his INT number of 201.
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LOL, ugh. I'd rather start 0-5 and then go 11-0. Art, the wins at the end of the season count more!
That's because TO basically tried to destroy every QB that ever threw a pass to other teammates or an incomplete pass while targeting him and every locker room he has ever been in.
You either legitimately don't know stuff like this or you are intentionally misrepresenting what happened.
This is something everyone understands other than you.