A major piece of the Steelers’ offseason puzzle was solved when Ben Roethlisberger signed a new contract for 2021. He agreed to take a $5 million pay cut, and then allowed his deal to be restructured in a way that will free up $15 million in salary cap space.
That was a nice gesture by Roethlisberger, who said he wants to do whatever it takes to win a Super Bowl. By taking less money and creating salary cap space, he helped his team. Now the front office has a little extra to try to fill in some of the holes, and it comes on the eve of a bunch of players hitting the market.
Roethlisberger said money wouldn’t be the reason he doesn’t come back and play, and he stayed true to his word.
Spare me, however, the martyr status and over-the-top praise about how much he sacrificed to make this happen. Yes, $5 million is $5 million, but Roethlisberger will still earn $14 million and has earned $253 million from the Steelers during his career. I am fairly certain he won’t be living on government cheese any time soon, so this wasn’t exactly a painful cut for him. Here’s the other thing: Roethlisberger really had no choice but to accept that kind of deal if he wanted to play again, at least for the Steelers, and he knew it.
As I wrote last week, I am not sure if the Steelers have gotten their bang for their buck in the last decade as they have a total of three playoff wins in that time. That means they have paid Roethlisberger about $65 million per playoff win.
That — taking a pay cut to show how committed he is to the team — was the easiest part of all this. That didn’t require much heavy lifting from Roethlisberger because, again, he isn’t hurting for money and is still going to be paid handsomely.
The larger question facing Roethlisberger is whether or not he truly is committed to winning above anything else. That’s not to say Roethlisberger hasn’t been a winner his entire career. He has been. But there is plenty of evidence that at times, he has placed his own individual accolades and need to be the star ahead of doing whatever it takes to win a game.
Roethlisberger doesn’t like to do quarterback sneaks, a play that would greatly help a team that is terrible in short yardage situations. Roethlisberger has “taken shots” down the field at bad times. Roethlisberger called his own number far too often last season, and the Steelers’ offense became predictable and easy to stop.
His hand-picked offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner built an offense around Roethlisberger’s arm — even though many of his most successful years came in offenses that were balanced and had a prominent running game. Roethlisberger wants to throw the ball, like all quarterbacks, and he often changes plays at the line to make sure he gets to throw a lot.
That cannot be the case this year if the Steelers are going to put themselves in position to make another Super Bowl run. This has to be a season like Roethlisberger’s early years, where less of him is better for the Steelers. That’s not to say he has to turn into a game manager, but it is to say this can’t be another year where they don’t run the ball with efficiency.
The strength of new offensive coordinator Matt Canada is in the run game. It is clear Art Rooney II believes the Steelers need to run the ball better, and Canada’s schemes probably will help improve an area that was dismal last season. His offense also asks that quarterbacks be under center often, something Roethlisberger doesn’t love doing, either.
It will probably work for the first few games, as Roethlisberger will adjust to the new offense and allow it to take hold. My question is what will happen if the Steelers lose a few games or the offense is slow getting out of the gate? Will Roethlisberger remain bought in or not?
Will he continue to do what Canada asks of him, or will he revert back to pushing for a pass happy offense? That will be the real test of just how bought in he really is and just how much he values winning over everything else. I am not saying he won’t do it, but I am not ready to say he definitely will just because he gave up a few million dollars in order to help the team’s cap situation.
The Steelers are committed to trying to win a Super Bowl this season, and Roethlisberger said that’s his goal as well. If that is the case, he can prove it by buying into Canada’s offense without question because he will be asked to do a lot of things he hasn’t been asked to do in the past — such as playing quarterback a different way than he prefers.
