PITTSBURGH — The annual discussions of whether or not Kevin Colbert will retire or do another season as the Steelers’ general manager have begun. Colbert, who goes year to year with his contracts, will decide sometime before his contract is up in April whether he will sign on again or retire.
If he does retire, my suggestion to Art Rooney II would be to save the money it would cost to replace him and just name Ben Roethlisberger interim general manager. That is what seems to be happening anyway, or more accurately it seems like that is what Roethlisberger (via his agent, Ryan Tollner) seems to think should happen.
Rooney met with the media Thursday and said that Roethlisberger wants to come back but that he would have to make some concessions with his contract in order to make it work. Roethlisberger is in the third year of his contract and is set to make $19 million in base salary and roster bonus but will count $41.25 million against the cap in 2021.
There is no way the Steelers can take that cap hit. They know it, Roethlisberger knows it and Tollner knows it. It just wouldn’t make sense to have one player eating up that much of the salary cap, even if it is a franchise quarterback.
Very soon after Rooney met with the media, Roethlisberger reached out to several media members, including Post-Gazette reporter Gerry Dulac, to make it clear he was willing to do whatever it takes to make it work.
“I don’t care about my pay at all this year,” Roethlisberger said. “I want to do everything I can and made that very clear to them from the very beginning to basically help the team however I can this year.”
That all sounds wonderful, but Tollner then added some more context to what Roethlisberger is thinking and what he wants.
“Ben knows he has more left, but having key players back, like (Maurkice) Pouncey, will be important,” Tollner told Dulac. “Ben’s contract won’t hold things up. We told them immediately after the season we will make any necessary adjustment to help their cap situation in 2021.”
And then he added: “If Ben is back, it’s for one purpose — to win, and he’ll need the right players around him.”
Ah, so now we are getting to the heart of what Roethlisberger really wants. He wants to restructure his deal but he isn’t likely to take a straight pay cut to make it work. He wants to come back and play but only if he has the right people around him.
I get it. Roethlisberger is a Hall of Famer and has led the team to three Super Bowls, and so the team must be gentle in how they handle the end of his career. But when Rooney and Mike Tomlin meet with Roethlisberger, they need to make it clear they are going to make decisions in the best interest of the Steelers.
Pouncey, for instance, has reportedly told people he wants to retire. That should be the end of it. If he is talking about it now, he should do it because if his heart truly isn’t in for playing another year, it will become evident in his play. And Pouncey doesn’t strike me as the kind of player who would want to play if he wasn’t completely dialed in and able to play at his best.
The players around Roethlisberger aren’t the only things he may not like, though. Matt Canada, the new offensive coordinator, is known as a run-game guru and he is no doubt being hired to improve that area. Roethlisberger won’t be getting the offense he wants and won’t likely get the personnel around him he wants.
And that begs the question: Why are the Steelers backing themselves into a corner by saying they want him to come back? And Rooney saying he would like to have the same roster back next year tells me he stopped watching the team after they got to 11-0.
The Steelers overachieved this year to get to 12-4. If they bring the same team back, they won’t be a threat to win the Super Bowl, and that is all that should matter. They certainly won’t be that if they have a quarterback who doesn’t get what he wants in terms of players around him and is running an offense he doesn’t like or feel comfortable in.
That’s why I say if the Steelers bring Roethlisberger back, they need to give him what he wants. They need to make sure he is happy because if he isn’t, it will be a disaster. And by saying publicly they want him back, they have opened themselves up to having to acquiesce to some of what he wants.
That isn’t likely to work out well for anyone except Roethlisberger, who will still make his money. And when it fails, he can blame the front office for not giving him the surrounding cast he needs to succeed.
