Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is on as hot of a streak as we have ever seen in the NFL the past couple of weeks.
And while it still remains to be seen if Roethlisberger can lead the Steelers franchise to a seventh Lombardi Trophy, if he keeps it up there is really only one thing that is guaranteed.
Roethlisberger is going to get paid in a big way.
The Steelers rolled the dice in the offseason by not inking their franchise quarterback to a contract extension. It has always been team policy to extend quarterbacks with two years remaining on their deals.
That didn’t happen this time around with Roethlisberger, mostly due to the fact that the cash-strapped Steelers had to get some other things done before addressing Roethlisberger.
If you look at the contract negotiations between the two sides as a gamble, well then the Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert rolled the dice and crapped out.
Prior to this season it likely would have taken about an average salary of $20 million per year to lock up Big Ben. It would have been beneficial to the team to do so as it would have lessened the current cap hit on Roethlisberger’s deal, being able to give him the bulk of the money up front.
When you look at recent deals signed by Jay Cutler (average of $18 million per season), Joe Flacco ($20 million) and Eli Manning ($17 million), $20 million for Roethlisberger almost seems like a bargain.
Now, given that he is in the midst of a career year, $20 million a year likely won’t cut it.
Throw in newly inked deals from the likes of Colin Kaepernick and Andy Dalton and the market would suggest that Roethlisberger is going to break the bank.
Sources say that Roethlisberger’s next deal could pay him at an average of $24-25 million per season.
Coming into the season, Roethlisberger had two years remaining on an eight-year, $102 million deal signed in 2008. Being one of the top five signal callers in the league, he was in line for at least $50 million in guarantees with a $20 million annual salary on his next contract.
Those numbers keep going up by the week.
The Steelers had an opportunity to lock Big Ben up prior to this season, but bad contracts of the past prevented that from happening.
Now they are going to have to pay the price.
They were going to have to pay Roethlisberger a ton of money anyway, but now they are likely going to have to go even higher than they ever imagined. And that is even true if Roethlisberger takes a “hometown discount.”
So as the Steelers sit back and keep watching Roethlisberger perform at an extremely high level, they know in the back of their minds that it is going to cost them in a big way.
So when June and July comes, get that checkbook out.
The Rooney’s are going to be writing a rather large one.
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