3 great things about Steelers extending Ben Roethlisberger’s contract

Steelers will have time to develop a gameplan in 2022

Prior to this point, the Steelers didn’t know which direction to go with the organization in the immediate future. Now it seems like there is plenty of light at the end of the tunnel. The way Ben Roethlisberger’s new contract is set up basically shows that 2021 will be his last season in the NFL – no matter what. He’s not going to come back and play for free next year, while Pittsburgh would have no incentive to officially cut him and let him sign elsewhere.

This means that the Steelers officially know that the rebuilding process starts next offseason. Because of this, they can make some moves that will help in this final hurrah – whether that means trying to keep Alejandro Villanueva, JuJu Smith-Schuster, or other players that can keep them competitive for the upcoming season.

While we hate to see them push more money into the future on possible contract extensions, the Steelers can start making a plan of how they want their team to look post-Ben – specifically at the quarterback position. Perhaps 2022 is the year they make a serious push to move up in the draft and land a quarterback. As long as they don’t give a lot of costly extensions to some of their older players, they will have money and options they can already begin to think about for the 2022 offseason when Roethlisberger will be retired.