Keeping Ben Roethlisberger might give the Steelers their best chance to compete in 2021, but here’s how it will hurt them in the future.
This offseason has been so unusual for many reasons, and we are finally seeing an older generation of quarterbacks who have been a staple to the game for so long hang up their hats. Drew Brees and Philip Rivers both retired this offseason, but many teams have been incredibly active in making sure they have an answer at the quarterback position moving forward.
The Colts are the most recent team to trade for their franchise passer, as Carson Wentz was dealt from the Eagles on Thursday afternoon. Unfortunately, one team that is still in the dark with their quarterback situation is the Pittsburgh Steelers. Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin both expressed that Ben Roethlisberger cannot return to the team with his current cap hit, and we are still waiting to see if the two sides can get anything figured out.
While I’m not denying that Roethlisberger would likely give this team the best chance of competing for a title in 2021, there are four ways that keeping him around will actually hurt the Steelers in the future:
Steelers future salary cap situation
It’s no surprise by now how the Steelers do business. Fans have to appreciate the fact that the Rooney’s are willing to spend up to the cap ceiling just about every year. However, they also seem to have a one-track mind when it comes to doing business. Colbert and the Rooney’s have always been a team that looks to compete every single year. The problem with doing this, is they often disregard the future repercussions.
The Steelers can’t restructure Roethlisberger without giving him an extension, and this looks to be the only way to keep him around. While Pittsburgh could make this a ‘phony extension’ that could allow Ben to retire in 2021, they would likely try to spread his cap hit out over the next 3-5 years in order to make one final push. This wouldn’t be a lot of money each year, but they would be taking an unnecessary hit for a player who is long gone from the roster.
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.
Prolonging finding the next franchise quarterback
The way things are starting to shape up this offseason, it looks like the Steelers could very well miss out on the top five quarterbacks in the 2021 NFL Draft (assuming they had any interest in going that direction). But that doesn’t mean that they couldn’t make some type of move to start preparing for the position after Ben is gone (whether that is by trading up in the draft or trading for a quarterback on a different team).
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any chance of doing this while Roethlisberger is around. I know the Steelers far too well, and their mentality will be ‘let’s give Ben everything we can for one final push’ – even if this is at the expense of seeking a future signal-caller.
Assuming Ben Roethlisberger wasn’t returning, Pittsburgh could potentially trade for a young player like Sam Darnold or start making moves to compile more draft capital for next season so they can move up and get a franchise quarterback. Mason Rudolph is not the answer, and the Steelers probably should have been looking for Ben’s replacement over the past few years. Don’t expect them to do it this offseason if he returns though; which means they will likely head into the 2022 season with no future passer in place.
Handicapping Matt Canada and Steelers offense
While this reason may seem minuscule compared to the rest, it’s important to consider the repercussions of keeping a 39-year-old quarterback around with a young, innovative offensive coordinator. If you are familiar with Matt Canada’s offenses from his college football days, he loves to get play-action and pre-snap motion involved as much as possible – two things that Roethlisberger expressed that he doesn’t like.
Catering to Ben’s needs could handicap Canada and potentially cause his stay in Pittsburgh to be much shorter than it should. The Steelers are going to expect to see some serious changes on offense in 2021, but I’m not sure that Roethlisberger is going to be willing to learn a new playbook and go along with all of them in his old age.
At this point in his career, you could make a case as to why having a good offensive coordinator for the future would be more valuable than having an old Ben Roethlisberger for one season. I would hate to see Canada be forced to limit his offensive potential because it doesn’t suit Roethlisberger’s needs.
Ben’s future with the team still seems to be up in the air at this point. While it’s possible that the Steelers could find the playoffs one last time under Roethlisberger’s direction, I don’t see them competing for a Super Bowl in 2021. If keeping Big Ben around means hurting the chances of success for Pittsburgh in the future, it won’t be worth it.