The Pittsburgh Steelers have found themselves in something of a standoff with Ben Roethlisberger, but that’s apparently not the fault of the quarterback.
According to NFL Network’s Aditi Kinkhabwala, Roethlisberger has signaled to the Steelers that he is ready to sit down and restructure his contract in order to reduce the burden of his $41 million cap hit. Some in the organization, however, simply want to move on.
“The Steelers are not in consensus on what to do,” Kinkhabwala said Monday on NFL Network. “From what I have been told, there is a very, very strong feeling in that building that it is time to simply move forward, and that while the Steelers still have Ben Roethlisberger, there is a bit of a limbo. Because even though there is a new offensive coordinator and there is a new quarterbacks coach, Ben Roethlisberger likes to play a particular way and that does not necessarily mesh with all the shifts and the motions that that new offensive coordinator Matt Canada would like to incorporate.”
Moving on from Roethlisberger isn’t as simple as just releasing him, as he carries a cap hit of just over $41 million for 2021. That’s obviously a huge sum of money, and one that the Steelers would be reluctant to pay in order to move on from the quarterback.
There have been hints that the Steelers are ready to move in a different direction at the quarterback position. It may be that the team is trying to figure out how to deal with the financial hit, as well as the optics of parting ways with a franchise quarterback and face of the organization.
