Home Player Spotlight Are the Steelers and Roethlisberger at an Impasse?

Are the Steelers and Roethlisberger at an Impasse?

by Steeldad

It was actually one month ago today that Pittsburgh Steelers’ General Manager Kevin Colbert said the team and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger were working towards a new contract.

These were comments from Colbert on February 10th. “Ben’s a franchise quarterback that’s getting better with age. I think he’s going to be a better quarterback down the road.”

Realistically, these things do take time but I’m pretty confident most of us thought the goal was to have a new contract in place by the time free agency started.

Well, guess what starts today in less than two hours and yet Roethlisberger is still without a new deal?

While neither side has said a word about the negotiations, common sense must tell us that things aren’t going too smoothly.

From what I’ve gathered, Ben and his agent Ryan Tollner were given two different packages. The idea was for Roethlisberger and Tollner to decide which one was better moving forward. What that means is they would need to come up with a combination of years and money. This is pretty much standard operating procedure I’m told.

At 33 years old now, Roethlisberger would have to think about just how much longer he wants to play versus how long the Steelers think he can play. From there, the money part gets decided and I have to believe most of the money would be up front.

With the Steelers being as quiet as a church mouse so far in the moments before free agency, one has to ponder whether the negotiations with Roethlisberger are a part of that situation.

For the “It’ll get done” crowd, my question would be why hasn’t it gotten done? Wouldn’t it be in the best interests of both the team and Roethlisberger to have a deal in place prior to free agency?

Seems logical enough but then again logic hasn’t always been a term used with this team the last couple of years.

 

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1 comment

Mozart March 11, 2015 - 4:08 pm

Ben is an ok QB. He has yet to demonstrate leadership qualities. He has repeatedly failed to inspire the team when chips are down and the momentum is going the other way. He does capitalize, but only at times and not often enough, when someone else creates a catalyst either through a play on offense or on defense. The two Super bowls the team won were because of questionable calls that went Steelers way. He is moody when things aren’t going the Steelers way on offense and gets into a funk too easily, rather than find his inner self and rally the team to fight it out. So ok, at times the offensive line hasn’t been great. But he should be making adjustments in his process to compensate for that. Instead, he remains rigid, unable to improvise and solve the problem. The fact that mediocre and much less gifted QBs with inferior surrounding talents get the better of Steelers time and again reflects badly on Ben. I am sorry, but before he is given an extension he needs to have a sit down with Bradshaw and take lessons, actual one-on-one lessons. from him. Finally, PLEASE GET RID OF HALEY OR CHANGE HIS ROLE. GIVE BEN THE AUTHORITY TO IMPROVISE AND USE HIS SKILL SETS AND INSTINCTS!!!

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