Choosing to re-sign older players over young players
Whether or not Ben Roethlisberger returns in 2021 completely changes the way the Steelers will look to do business. If they cannot agree on contract terms that will lower his cap number without costing the team, Pittsburgh could begin their “rebuild” mode. By doing so, they could let some of the older players on their roster walk away while they attempt to re-sign younger role players like Cameron Sutton, Mike Hilton, or even JuJu Smith-Schuster.
Sadly, I can tell you that this isn’t the way Kevin Colbert is going to do business if Big Ben does come back next season. With the money Pittsburgh would otherwise use to keep some of their young talent, the Steelers could try to convince players like Alejandro Villanueva and Matt Feiler to stick around for another year or maybe even give David DeCastro an extension to lower his money. It will also cause them to avoid cutting some older veterans that could save a lot of money (i.e. Joe Haden) because they will want them around to make one final push.
By doing so, the Steelers are hurting the team’s chances beyond the 2020 season. It already looks like there could be an incredible amount of turnover on the roster this year and, by next season, they could be starting from square one again with just a few young players to build around.