4 reasons why Steelers made right move by keeping Ben

The teams that win often in the NFL have built a good culture.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have built a great culture and this only adds to it. It is a lot easier to sign free agents as they are getting older for cheap if they think they can win a Super Bowl for you. It is also easier to sign them if they believe they will be treated well.

The Steelers don’t have the cap to sign big-ticket free agents regularly. However, players like Eric Ebron are willing to sign cheaper contracts to play for Pittsburgh while worse tight ends like Jesse James, C.J Uzomah, and Nick Boyle are making more money. Ebron took a pay cut to come to a team that has a good culture. That same culture is why Avery Williamson will likely sign a team-friendly deal for Pittsburgh this offseason.

This also helps repair an image I believe to have been tarnished by the exits of Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown, James Harrison, James Farrior, and Troy Polamalu. They were all foundational pieces to the team, at one point in time, that had unfortunate exits out of Pittsburgh. When you think about it, Pittsburgh has been very player-friendly recently and that is a good thing. As it is helping to draw more veterans to the team at a cheaper cost.

With Pittsburgh gaining more favor with players league-wide, upper-tier older free agents like Kelvin Beachum, Russell Okung, and Everson Griffin aren’t as out of the realm of possibility as they seem. These are guys at a crossroads, they can go to a team that will treat them right while giving them a legitimate chance to add to their legacy with rings or they can squeeze out the last bit of free-agent value they have left before retirement. That helps for a team with a low free-agency budget year in and year out.

Ben is the greatest quarterback the Steelers have ever fielded. He helped bring us our first super bowl win in 26 years. He has set every passing record for the franchise and is a first-ballot, Hall-of-Famer in every sense of the word. He has put so much into the community of Pittsburgh. Now the Steelers are giving him the chance to go out with a Super Bowl win, just as Ben helped do for Jerome Bettis in Super Bowl 40. That may be the best reason of all for bringing Ben back.