Are the Steelers selling their future for a chance to win now?

The Pittsburgh Steelers have structured a handful of contracts in a way that is going to hurt them in 2022 and beyond. Are they selling their future for a chance to win now? 

Everybody wants to root for a competitive football team, and nobody wants to be out of the running early in the season. Fortunately, this isn’t a problem Pittsburgh Steelers fans have had to worry about since their 6-10 season back in 2003. The organization was incredibly fortunate to land quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in the 2004 NFL Draft, and the team hasn’t suffered a single losing season since he joined the team 17 years ago.

In an effort to stay competitive yet again in 2021, Ben Roethlisberger took a pay cut earlier this offseason to return to the team this season. This decision obviously impacted other financial moves the Steelers would make.

Big Ben’s contract was structured in a way that includes voidable years through the 2025 NFL season. As a consequence of trying to keep his cap number manageable in 2021, the team will absorb a $10.3 million cap hit in 2022. This is money that is already on the books and counts against the team’s total cap space next season.

However, the Steelers didn’t just apply this Roethlisberger’s contract, but to numerous players who they signed or extended this offseason. In all, Mark Kaboly of The Athletic reports that Pittsburgh has structured voidable-year contracts to 6 players already – including newly signed free agents, Trai Turner and Melvin Ingram:

By doing these voidable-year extensions, the Steelers are afforded the opportunity to keep their Super Bowl window up open just a bit longer by keeping cap numbers small in the present. However, one has to argue if this is going to be worth it in the end.

Voidable-year contracts will hurt Steelers in the future

Between Ben Roethlisberger, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Eric Ebron, and Melvin Ingram, the Steelers must absorb $22.18 million of former cap space into unusable money in 2022, according to Over the Cap. This doesn’t even include the numbers for Trai Turner after this season or Cameron Sutton after his two-year deal.

With Roethlisberger likely gone following the 2021 season, the Steelers could really use this extra money to rebuild the roster or even sign or trade for a quarterback. While $22 million is enough money to buy almost any elite player they could potentially encounter in free agency, they will be losing out on this opportunity next year.

Because of a few of these deals, the Steelers will still have money coming off their books in the 2023 offseason. Essentially, these voidable-year contracts are going to give Pittsburgh far less cap space to work with in the future and put a dampener on their rebuilding process.

It’s not unlike Kevin Colbert and the Steelers to find a way for the cap to work out each year, but with Ben Roethlisberger nearing 40 years old and coming off the worst six-game stretch of his NFL career, one has to argue if jeopardizing the future for a chance to win now is going to be worth it in the long run.