Ben Roethlisberger signs with Pittsburgh Steelers for 2021 NFL season

[topseed]

Say what you want but 5 million dollars he was set to get in 2021 is now not there for him. This doesn’t happen often, so he does deserve credit for this gesture.

Or you can say 14 million dollars that the team wasn't going to pay him is now there for him...because the Steelers weren't going to take a $41 million dollar cap hit this year.

Do me a favor and take a look at spotrac.com, and compare Ben's season-by-season earnings to Tom Brady's. Brady never even earned $20 million in ANY season until he made $23 million 2019, one year removed from his last league MVP season. Ben made $26 million or more in 4 different seasons, including a WHOPPING $40 million in that same 2019 year.

Brady earned less in his 20 seasons with the Patriots ($235 mill) than Ben has in his 17 years with Pittsburgh ($253 mill). How much "credit" does Ben really deserve for taking a 5 million dollar pay cut at this point?

 

[topseed]

Ben could save 3 drowning puppies, rescue kids from a burning building and people on here would ***** that he didn't make it to church on Sunday.

Yeah, too bad he won't be able to rescue the Steelers, right?

 

[topseed]

I think you just found one. I guess he should be playing for free this year.

No, not for free, just a lot less than $14 million. You know, so he could accomplish his goal of doing anything to help the team?

 

[topseed]

Dude, You seriously think he should risk injury for a million a year? 14 million a year is a good deal...that's a 27 million pay cut...Pretty ******* substantial...

No, dude, he's already been paid $22 million. It's a $5 million pay cut.

 

[topseed]

Ben reduces what was owed him from $19 million to $14 million and we still have people saying he does nothing for the team and didn't take a pay cut. Per the numbers released, he not only took a pay cut but he then spread the remaining over several years to make the cap hits as low as possible. Haters will be haters. You're probably the ones that don't think Ben should be in the HOF as well.

Never said he did nothing. Never said he didn't take a pay cut. HE said he would do ANYTHING to help the team. I don't agree that accepting $14 million dollars is the MOST he could have done. I don't hate Ben. I think Ben should be a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer.

Understand now, or do I need to type slower?

 

[topseed]

so if Ben had retired or was just cut, the cap hit for this season would've been about the same than it is with him coming back and reworking his deal?
So we could've had Mason or Haskins starting in 2021, or Ben at roughly the same cap hit, and people are still actually bitching?

Like all the morons on the radio, complaining that this pushes the post Ben plan back one season. Who gives a ****, the post Ben replacement isn't on the roster right now anyways.

Actually, no, it's not "about the same." The cap hit is about $4 million more this season (26 vs. 22) and another 10.3 if they cut Ben next season.

Yeah, who gives a ****. You got your man-crush back for one more shot at a non-losing season...congratulations.

 

[topseed]

Love it or hate it (suck it up) he is a STEELERS player and I'm wishing / expecting the best possible. Some here seem to forget that the decision is made weather agree or not. Some also want him to fail so they can come back and say "I TOLD YOU SO" . I want BEN doing the things he needs to do to be the best possible, I want the team to do what they need to do to be the best ever and that includes BEN's restructure and play.


Salute the nation

I'm not rooting for Ben to fail. But I'm a realist. I believe what I see with my eyes. And I see an aging quarterback with none of the mobility he once possessed, and therefore a fraction of his former playmaking ability. I see a guy who barely beat the Ravens' second- and third-string, lost to a ****** Football Team, got embarrassed against the Bills, lost to the lowly Bengals on MNF, had one great half against the Colts, and threw four INTs while losing a first-round playoff game to an inferior team. Maybe you saw something else.

You don't have to accept it if you don't want to...and if somehow a magic fairy comes along, waves a wand, and returns Ben's skills to what they were 12 years ago, you can be the first guy to tell me so. I'll be happy to have been mistaken.

 

[Stryker]

And you're way off Topseed. There is a $15M savings for him taking a $5M paycut and spreading it out over 4 years. Even if he retires next year, it is only $12M in dead money. That is nothing compared to the $42 we were staring at this year.

A running game and an O line will help Ben down the stretch this year.

PS for the BRady argument making only $20M a year. It was his choice because his wife is a Billionaire.

 

[topseed]

And you're way off Topseed. There is a $15M savings for him taking a $5M paycut and spreading it out over 4 years. Even if he retires next year, it is only $12M in dead money. That is nothing compared to the $42 we were staring at this year.

A running game and an O line will help Ben down the stretch this year.

PS for the BRady argument making only $20M a year. It was his choice because his wife is a Billionaire.

No, I'm not way off. The $15 million reduction in cap hit, from 41 to 26, results from his salary reduction of 5 this year and 10.3 potential cap hit next year. It didn't just disappear, as Coryea had erroneously hoped.

Right, because Ben has to worry about what his wife earns, after he's made a quarter of a billion dollars. It was Brady's choice to actually help his team, not lip service.

 

[BLITZ]

Yeah, too bad he won't be able to rescue the Steelers, right?

He still gives the Steelers the best chance to win. And he took a 5 million pay cut to do it. Not many people would do that

 

[Drink IRON City]

I'm not rooting for Ben to fail. But I'm a realist. I believe what I see with my eyes. And I see an aging quarterback with none of the mobility he once possessed, and therefore a fraction of his former playmaking ability. I see a guy who barely beat the Ravens' second- and third-string, lost to a ****** Football Team, got embarrassed against the Bills, lost to the lowly Bengals on MNF, had one great half against the Colts, and threw four INTs while losing a first-round playoff game to an inferior team. Maybe you saw something else.

You don't have to accept it if you don't want to...and if somehow a magic fairy comes along, waves a wand, and returns Ben's skills to what they were 12 years ago, you can be the first guy to tell me so. I'll be happy to have been mistaken.

I don't think ANYBODY here thinks Ben is going to play as his 12 year ago self. I know reality as well as anyone here so don't act as if all of us here live in some fairy tail, because I don't.

No one on the roster gives us a better chance to win than Ben. The team went in that direction weather we fans like it or not. I will want each and every player to be the best they can be and to be clear, at their current age. Yes if by some way they play above and beyond their respective ability then bonus that. Many things factor into how a player will play and I'm hoping with the new OC / OL coach & assistant that maybe scheme will be more conducive to our aging QB. Add in a OL or two and things start looking up as opposed to last year. RB can help as well.

I'm one of many, including you who wants this team to be the best it can be as we are all just a bunch of crazy fans looking for entertainment along the way.



Salute the nation

 

[Drink IRON City]

And you're way off Topseed. There is a $15M savings for him taking a $5M paycut and spreading it out over 4 years. Even if he retires next year, it is only $12M in dead money. That is nothing compared to the $42 we were staring at this year.

A running game and an O line will help Ben down the stretch this year.

PS for the BRady argument making only $20M a year. It was his choice because his wife is a Billionaire.

Also don't forget that the cheatriot franchise funneled money to t*mmyb*y through his TB12 fittness center. The team sent all players there for anything cheatriot related. The league (rog) turned a blind eye for years so this t*mmyb*y playing on the cheap is a fallacy. Deflated footballs didn't matter either but who's keeping track ?




Salute the nation

 

[Litos]

Also don't forget that the cheatriot franchise funneled money to t*mmyb*y through his TB12 fittness center. The team sent all players there for anything cheatriot related. The league (rog) turned a blind eye for years so this t*mmyb*y playing on the cheap is a fallacy. Deflated footballs didn't matter either but who's keeping track ?




Salute the nation

red hot poker kind of stuff righ there.

Everyone that doesn't have a boner for brady knows he was getting money under the table so **** off to those that feel Brady is such a team player for collecting less money than Ben over the years. Cheating makes it all easier, right?

 

[slashsteel]

It's not a positive or a negative for the club. It's saving the Steelers a mere 5 million dollars, and they have decided to stand pat with a 39-year-old quarterback who was 1-4 over his last 5 games.

Whether you (and the other scads of Ben lovers piling on me because I *gasp!* don't think Ben is bending over backwards for the sake of the team) want to accept it or not, he just didn't play very well at the end of last season. You can blame the line, you can blame the running game, you can blame it on whatever else you feel like (except Ben, of course), but the fact remains that his 82.7 quarterback rating in his last six games happens to be the exact same number as the career rating of his backup, Mason Rudolph. The same guy who played better against Cleveland the week before than Ben did in the first round.

Ben is not the future, he is the past. He is a shell of what once made him great. Praying that everything somehow changes in 2021 (now that he's yet another year older and slower, and even less apt to move with the football, to the point where he is almost unwilling to run a quarterback sneak) isn't going to alter reality. It's simply going to delay the inevitable.

Yeah he tailed off but the first part of the season gets to be added into the equation too right? I don't think I piled on you I just simply disagreed with you. Sure I love Ben's whole body of work it was an enjoyable HOF career. If he ends up being done so be it, but the powers that be disagree with you too. Those damn Ben lovers.

 

[TDX27]

Ben did the right thing in pretty much all accounts other than taking no pay. He reduces his cap hit in 2021 as much as he could and pushes some into future year. His coming back gives us the best chance to win this year at QB and gives us another year to figure out who really will be his back up. Do they sign Rudolph to a starter contract since his is due after this year? I doubt it. If the sign him the contract would have to be very reasonable or full of incentives like Marsha's was to go to Tampa. All around, what Ben did was probably the best thing for the team definitely for this year and probably for the future as well.

 

[Coryea]

Actually, no, it's not "about the same." The cap hit is about $4 million more this season (26 vs. 22) and another 10.3 if they cut Ben next season.

Yeah, who gives a ****. You got your man-crush back for one more shot at a non-losing season...congratulations.

For ***** sake shut the **** up with the man-crush ****. So we get Ben as our QB and it costs 4 million more than if Ben retired and Mason was QB, I'd say that's a win.

 

[6Lombardis]

Or you can say 14 million dollars that the team wasn't going to pay him is now there for him...because the Steelers weren't going to take a $41 million dollar cap hit this year.

Do me a favor and take a look at spotrac.com, and compare Ben's season-by-season earnings to Tom Brady's. Brady never even earned $20 million in ANY season until he made $23 million 2019, one year removed from his last league MVP season. Ben made $26 million or more in 4 different seasons, including a WHOPPING $40 million in that same 2019 year.

Brady earned less in his 20 seasons with the Patriots ($235 mill) than Ben has in his 17 years with Pittsburgh ($253 mill). How much "credit" does Ben really deserve for taking a 5 million dollar pay cut at this point?

I’ll never believe Brady only made what was on the NFL books. He got paid through TB12 somehow. Plus, his wife could buy an NFL team she makes so much money. Ive never heard reports of Ben playing hardball with the team over his salary which has always been commensurate with starting QBs as far as I could tell, and sometimes less than those with less credentials. Regarding the new deal, Ben clearly wanted to 1) play another year at least 2) do so with the Steelers 3) took a reduction this year to help the team. The team feels they can go to the SB with Ben at QB, frankly a lot of us felt the same early this year.
Keep throwing darts at the guy, but everyone I hear discussing this is taking the same view as I am: Ben didn’t HAVE to do this, and doing so benefits the team. I can see not everyone agrees, but most do.

 

[topseed]

He still gives the Steelers the best chance to win. And he took a 5 million pay cut to do it. Not many people would do that

Probably.

But the best chance to win what? 8 to 10 regular season games? Ben hasn't won a single playoff contest since 2016, when he was 34. He's 39 now. What has changed for the better?

 

[topseed]

Also don't forget that the cheatriot franchise funneled money to t*mmyb*y through his TB12 fittness center. The team sent all players there for anything cheatriot related. The league (rog) turned a blind eye for years so this t*mmyb*y playing on the cheap is a fallacy. Deflated footballs didn't matter either but who's keeping track ?




Salute the nation

Hadn't heard about that before.

So how much did it amount to? Don't guess.

 

[topseed]

red hot poker kind of stuff righ there.

Everyone that doesn't have a boner for brady knows he was getting money under the table so **** off to those that feel Brady is such a team player for collecting less money than Ben over the years. Cheating makes it all easier, right?

I don't have a "boner" for Brady. Salary facts are facts. If you're certain that Brady made tens of millions of dollars from this funneling activity (which is highly unlikely, but possible, I guess), then feel free to post some evidence of your claims. Or you can **** off, too.

 

[topseed]

Yeah he tailed off but the first part of the season gets to be added into the equation too right? I don't think I piled on you I just simply disagreed with you. Sure I love Ben's whole body of work it was an enjoyable HOF career. If he ends up being done so be it, but the powers that be disagree with you too. Those damn Ben lovers.

Yeah, I guess we all can agree that Ben "tailed off" after that 11-0 start. If he'd done the opposite, and started the season like **** but finished strongly, I'd be a lot less concerned.

 

[topseed]

Ben did the right thing in pretty much all accounts other than taking no pay. He reduces his cap hit in 2021 as much as he could and pushes some into future year. His coming back gives us the best chance to win this year at QB and gives us another year to figure out who really will be his back up. Do they sign Rudolph to a starter contract since his is due after this year? I doubt it. If the sign him the contract would have to be very reasonable or full of incentives like Marsha's was to go to Tampa. All around, what Ben did was probably the best thing for the team definitely for this year and probably for the future as well.

Just so I understand what you're saying here: There's no difference between taking "no pay" and taking $14 million dollars? There's no in-between number that would have been better in all accounts for the team?

 

[topseed]

For ***** sake shut the **** up with the man-crush ****. So we get Ben as our QB and it costs 4 million more than if Ben retired and Mason was QB, I'd say that's a win.

Guess I hit a nerve there with your man-crush on Ben. It's OK...I'm not the first guy to notice, and something tells me I won't be the last.

 

[topseed]

I’ll never believe Brady only made what was on the NFL books. He got paid through TB12 somehow. Plus, his wife could buy an NFL team she makes so much money. Ive never heard reports of Ben playing hardball with the team over his salary which has always been commensurate with starting QBs as far as I could tell, and sometimes less than those with less credentials. Regarding the new deal, Ben clearly wanted to 1) play another year at least 2) do so with the Steelers 3) took a reduction this year to help the team. The team feels they can go to the SB with Ben at QB, frankly a lot of us felt the same early this year.
Keep throwing darts at the guy, but everyone I hear discussing this is taking the same view as I am: Ben didn’t HAVE to do this, and doing so benefits the team. I can see not everyone agrees, but most do.

Great. You'll never believe it. Another vague claim about Brady with no details. Useful.

I did check the career earnings of Eli Manning and Philip Rivers, and you are correct -- they are both very close to Ben's numbers. Good point.

I guess what upset me about the whole situation was Ben saying that he didn't care what he made in 2021, and how he'd do anything to help the team. Then he turns around and accepts $14 million. The Steelers need all the help they can get with the cap right now. Again, a $5 million pay cut (for a guy who has made a quarter billion dollars) is not all that substantial, in my opinion, and was not what I was hoping for after those comments.

Would it really make any significant difference in Ben's world of finance had he agreed to play for say, $5 million in 2021? No, of course it wouldn't, because he's already amassed multi-generational wealth (all by himself, even without his wife). But it could have certainly made a difference in regards to the Steelers' current cap situation, could it not?

Helping people to discern belief in this relatively simple concept from "Ben hate" has proven to be quite difficult, but I suppose I'll keep trying, if necessary.

 

[Coryea]

Guess I hit a nerve there with your man-crush on Ben. It's OK...I'm not the first guy to notice, and something tells me I won't be the last.

Nope no nerve man, just comes across as idiotic, but I'm not the first guy to notice, and something tells me I wont be the last.

I posted a week after the season, if they called Ben in and said "hey Ben we're going a different direction, and the cap hit is just to high" that I would've been fine with that, but I'm guessing you and the "other guy" missed that posted, or just ignored that one.