A Perfect Match
Dan Rooney characterized the negotiations that resulted in an eight year, $102 million contract extension for Ben Roethlisberger as “easy.”
Of course it was easy.
As Director of Football Operations Kevin Colbert explained, only 27 quarterbacks in NFL history have ever won a Super Bowl, and of those 27 only five were still active players as of March 14. Ben Roethlisberger is one of the 27, one of the five, and because he turned 26 on March 2 he has a real chance to join the eight quarterbacks in NFL history who have won more than one.
That’s why this was easy. Roethlisberger had said he wanted to stay with the Steelers, and the Steelers were not about to let Roethlisberger get away. After those issues are established, it just comes down to where to put the commas and the decimal points.
“I told them that I didn’t want to go anywhere the day I walked in, and that stays true,” said Roethlisberger. “I’m glad that I have the opportunity to be here a little bit longer and hopefully finish my career, get another one of these (contract extensions) to finish my career in the black and gold. I told them I look good in the black and gold and nothing else.
“I wanted to be like the Dan Marino, John Elway, the guys who play with one team their entire career. That’s been the goal, and we got one step closer to being able to do that.”
Colbert expressed the team’s viewpoint.
“Being that Ben is 26 years old, he can really do some special things in his career,” said Colbert. “He probably hasn’t played his best football yet.
Usually these guys don’t peak at the age of 25 or 26. We really think that his better days are ahead of him. We will try to put the best team around him that will allow him to succeed.”
In the bottom-line business that is professional football, the top quarterbacks in the league are Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Roethlisberger and Eli Manning. Forget those other lists, and the reason to forget them is that the bottom line in the NFL is winning, and those guys are the top quarterbacks in the league because they’re the ones who already have won the Super Bowl and have a chance to win more. The teams employing those players aren’t about to let one hit the open market in the prime of his career.
“We kind of understood that because this kid has done tremendous things,” said Colbert. “Quarterbacks get compensated a lot, so you knew that going into the 2007 season that this was going to be the time that we were going to talk to him. Then he had a special season, and he earned the big contract. The organization recognized that and was willing to compensate him for that. We always have to keep in mind the big picture, but a big part of that big picture is the quarterback. Fortunately, he is under contract for a number of years.”
After Roethlisberger signed his new contract, he became the third-highest-paid player in the NFL. Peyton Manning’s contract averages $14 million a season; Carson Palmer is next at $13.2 million; and then comes Roethlisberger at $12.75 million.
“It’s a big relief (to get this done),” said Roethlisberger. “All the questions that I have been getting for the last month hopefully can finally come to an end. Like Coach Tomlin and I said, we can put it behind us now and focus strictly on football and getting more championships for this organization.”
Exactly. It wasn’t as though the Roethlisberger contract wasn’t going to get done, and so now that it is the Steelers can go about the business of trying to improve and fortify their roster in advance of the 2008 season.
“Obviously we did have the cap space available to do the types of things that we have done,” said Colbert. “We didn’t have to make any roster moves to accommodate what happened today.”
The most commonly cited areas the Steelers need to improve are the offensive line, the defensive line and backup running back; whether any of those positions can be fortified through free agency remains to be determined, but by getting the Roethlisberger extension completed the team knows where it stand from a salary cap standpoint.
“Our philosophy is always going to be to try to keep our own players,” said Colbert about the Steelers’ approach to free agency. “We always know where the cap is and we are aware of what we can and can’t do. We have to work within those restrictions but we are never going to shortchange them either.”
One area in which the Steelers might receive some salary cap relief is with the transition tag it applied to Max Starks. When the Steelers tagged Starks, they reserved the right to match any contract offer he receives on the open market, but they also were assessed $6.895 million.
Both sides want a long-term contract, and the first year of such a deal figures to carry a cap number much lower than $6.895 million.
“In our talks with Max and his representatives prior to putting the tag on him, it was mutually agreed that we want to do this thing long term.” Said Colbert. “Sometimes you can’t quickly get that done. He probably wants to see what else is out there for him, which is his right under the collective bargaining agreement.
We are fine with that. Maybe you shop around, see what your value is, and then you get something that is more tempting than we are going to be able to do. I don’t know. But he’ll have that option and then we will have the option to match it, in addition to continue talking to him prior to that.”
With the Roethlisberger situation settled, the Steelers will know exactly what they can and cannot do in that situation, and in any of the others to arise during the rest of this offseason.
“It is important to be able to keep the guys that we have,” said Roethlisberger. “We have a great group of guys, so I’m excited about this year, the team that we have and the new guys that we will have coming in; free agents that we are going to get. It’s exciting to be with the Pittsburgh Steelers this year. I’m sure that the fans and everybody else is going to be just as excited as we are.”
Roethlisberger is coming off the best season of his career from a statistical standpoint. He completed 264 passes for 3,154 yards and set team records with 32 touchdown passes and a passer rating of 104.1. He also quarterbacked the Steelers into the postseason for the third time in his four-year career, and the winning, more than the statistics, is what made this signing a foregone conclusion.
“This is about being a Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback for as long as I can be,” said Roethlisberger. “I don’t want to go anywhere else. I love Pittsburgh, I love the fans. This is the best organization and the best fans in all of sports. I didn’t want to go anywhere, so I am glad that we got it done and I can stay here.”
As the man who signed the check, Dan Rooney put it into perspective. “It was easy, because of Ben and how he handled the situation.
Don’t let them act like they did something (difficult). We are very pleased with this and what the future will be for us."
*Thank you to Jan for transcribing the article!