PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – There was nothing concrete from Steelers GM Kevin Colbert’s media Zoom call Wednesday about the future of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Colbert said plainly ‘as we sit here today, Ben is a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers’.
OK, what does that mean?
Roethlisberger did have meetings with Art Rooney, Colbert and Mike Tomlin after the season.
“He reiterated that to us, that he wants to continue to play,” Colbert said. “We told him quite frankly we have to look at this current situation. Art Rooney addressed that. With Ben’s current cap number, some adjustment will have to be made.”
Colbert said they are not currently negotiating with Roethlisberger to work down his salary for 2021, not working on a contract extension.
The Steelers general manager said they are working now on the global picture of the team with a lot of work to be done.
“It’s an ongoing process that doesn’t involve him, but involves the players around him,” Colbert said. “I’m sure he’s going to want to see the type of team we can keep together under our current situations and hopefully we can all make the correct adjustments to keep that group together as much as possible.”
Colbert said they knew 2021 was going to be a tight year up against the salary cap before the pandemic reduced the number of the cap ceiling, likely by tens of millions. They must be cap compliant by the start of the new league year, March 15.
“Ben Roethlisberger did a lot of really, good things last year,” Colbert said. “We anticipate that he could still do some good things moving forward. Hopefully there is a way we can try to figure out and do what’s best for the organization.”
“And do what’s best for Ben. Hopefully he will be able to see that and feel the same way we do. There is a lot of work that needs to be done. Not just with Ben but just with the whole restricted free agent class and our whole cap situation as well.”
The sides have agreed to meet at some point in the next few weeks when they have a better handle on this.
“He was doing some incredible feats as we were building that 11-0 record,” Colbert said. “A lot of that was him performing at crucial times in games. Down the stretch, he didn’t play as well. We didn’t play as good around him. We didn’t play as good on defense. The running game failing us in a time of year when the running game is critical. Can he still do some special things, absolutely.”
Whether he will be doing those things with the Steelers is a work in progress.
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