General manager Kevin Colbert said he is not focusing on anything other than Ben Roethlisberger playing this season with the Steelers and did not say what the quarterback’s future will be with the team.
Roethlisberger reworked his contract during the offseason that allowed the Steelers to reduce his salary cap hit for the 2021 season from $41 million to $26 million. However, the new contract meant Roethlisberger took a $5 million pay cut.
“2021 is all we’re worried about with Ben,” Colbert said Tuesday in a session with members of the Pittsburgh media. “What he did for us in the spring by taking a restructuring of his contract, it was done with two purposes — the first was his being able to be here, but also allowing us to do some things financially cap-wise that we probably wouldn’t have been able to do without that restructure.”
Roethlisberger’s new deal pays him only for the 2021 season, though the contract includes four more voidable years that spread his $12.9 million signing bonus through the 2025 season.
“It was a very unselfish move on his part,” Colbert said. “It made him available for 2021. Beyond that, none of us know.”
The Steelers have moved from four days of training camp at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side to Heinz Field, where they will have one more non-padded practice Tuesday before allowing spectators on Wednesday to attend practice.
Colbert said the Steelers will be better equipped to make evaluations on their rookies and new additions, such as outside linebacker Melvin Ingram and guard Trai Turner, once the players don pads and begin hitting.
Ingram and Turner — a pair of former Pro Bowl players — were added after the Steelers released guard David DeCastro, who needed a third ankle surgery and was unlikely to play in 2021. DeCastro’s departure — at one point Colbert referred to it as his “retirement” — created $5.5 million in space on the salary cap, allowing the Steelers to sign those players.
“Really, our cap situation changed coming out of minicamp when we decided to move on from David,” Colbert said. “All of a sudden we had cap room and now we’re looking, ‘Wait a minute, this player is available, we might be able to sign him. He was looking for a certain amount back in the spring, now in the early summer he might be more affordable.’ We tried to make those decisions.
“When Melvin Ingram was still available and we could work, we were happy to do that. When Trai Turner was affordable and workable, we were happy to do that. We’ll see what we got.”
Colbert was asked if there was any one position that still needs to add depth before the start of the regular season.
“I wouldn’t say we lack depth. I think we lack proven abilities,” Colbert said. “Do we have people who can play every position? Yes, but they have to come out and prove it. Alex Highsmith has to prove he can be a 17- game starter, and he’ll be challenged by Melvin Ingram. Can Cam Sutton be an outside corner for 17 games?
“You look at those things and make decisions based on we think they can, but until those players do it we don’t know.”
One of the other big questions facing the Steelers is the quality of the offensive line, which lost three former Pro Bowlers — DeCastro, center Maurkice Pouncey and left tackle Al Villanueva. As such, every member of the current offensive line is either a new starter or playing a new position, including right tackle Zach Banner, who started just three quarters in the season opener in 2020 before injuring his ACL. The biggest move involves shifting Chuks Okorafor from the right side to left tackle, something Colbert thinks Okorafor can handle.
“When we scouted Chuks, we thought he would be a better left tackle than right tackle coming out of college,” Colbert said. “Last year, he lost the competition to Zach Banner at right tackle, but had they been competing at left tackle my guess is Chuks would have beaten him out. I think Chuks can be a starting left tackle.”
