First, let's address the Ben Roethlisberger trade "rumor."
Not only have the Steelers not explored trading Roethlisberger, they have $14 million reasons not to. That's the amount of dead money he would count against their salary cap next season if they moved him after this season is complete.
The Steelers would have to sign Roethlisberger to a more cap-friendly contract extension before moving him. And if they were able to do that, why would they want to trade him?
The whole thing stinks to me of an agent trying to lay the groundwork for offseason contract talks, something that goes on all the time but doesn't necessarily get reported.
Roethlisberger's agent later Tweeted that the entire report was wrong and that the QB wanted to finish his career in Pittsburgh.
The only time the Steelers even remotely considered trading Roethlisberger was during the 2010 offseason when he was going through his legal problems.
At that time, they had both Byron Leftwich and Charlie Batch as backup quarterbacks.
And all he did that season was lead them to a third Super Bowl.
The Steelers aren't going to trade Roethlisberger now with only Bruce Gradkowski and Landry Jones as possible replacements.
They don't want to be forced to play a rookie QB. Remember, the only reason Roethlisberger played as a rookie was because Tommy Maddox got hurt. The plan was to allow him to sit and learn a season under Maddox.
@ Jones, Derek Moye, DeMarcus Van Dyke, Richard Gordon, Kion Wilson, Chris Carter and Hebron Fangupo are inactive for the Steelers.
For Buffalo, the only inactive of any import is Robert Woods, a rookie who is the team's third-leading receiver.
Both Marcus Gilbert and Kelvin Beachum are active for the Steelers and are expected to start.
William Gay will start at CB.
i don't believe trading br will be totally ignored by the front office. i'm certainly not saying it is the best option, it is an option that should be considered though. especially once they get new contract demands from br. maybe ben wants to work with ariens again ?
ReplyDeleteif the front office thinks one of the qb's in the draft is capable, and ben wants 20 mil per year, a cost controlled qb may be the option that is best. along with several draft picks from the team that wants him.
at this point it is all just conjecture. maybe he wants to retire a steeler, maybe not. but all options should be considered.
Maybe it's just the latest shot in BR's war on Todd Haley? Regardless, the Steelers would be foolish to foreclose any options, incl a trade, with regard to BR.
ReplyDeletewhere there's smoke there's fire, even if it's just a spark. hypothetically, if the cardinals were to offer 2 first rounders for ben, they'd at least have to talk about it. it would be out of character, but its not like you lose the fan base when you trade someone of such ill repute.
ReplyDeleteBoth Art Rooney, Ben's agent and Roethlisberger himself all said the story was BS.
ReplyDeleteIt came from one guy, who obviously got burned by a "source."
Just because both parties deny it doesn't mean it isn't true. Would you honestly expect either side to confirm such a rumor anyway?
ReplyDeleteWhere there's smoke, there's fire. It's no secret BR wants a pure passing offense while the Steelers, lead by ARII, want to re-establish the run game. Who do you think is going to win the war, the owner of the team or the qb employee?
Or maybe that smoke is coming from rappaports bong. Could just rely on common sense rather than devining smog. They've restructured him so many times now they've made it near impossible to trade. Extending him then trading him doesn't solve anything, as any remaining prorata on his original deal would accelerate. And they just restructured him in Feb. Why would they do that if they if they had even a remote thought of trading him. They'd end up eating that $9m or whatever it was on this years cap plus all the acceleration. They'd end up with somewhere around 20% of their cap allocated to one guy no longer on the roster. They'd have to gut what's left of the roster just to field 53. Makes zero financial/cap sense this yearxor next. Whole thing smelled of BS from the jump. Funny how much of the media got sucked in.
ReplyDeleteMedia didn't get sucked in. One guy did.
ReplyDeleteOnce it gets put out there, I then had to dispel the rumor, which made no sense in terms of financially or football-wise.
I wouldn't be so dismissive. Remember the report came from one the offical NFL media outlets.
ReplyDeleteI myself don't doubt at all the Steelers are thinking about trading BR or that he might want out. They have a decision to make about him. He can't continue to take 10-15% of the cap when they clearly have younger players who need signed and re-signed. Haley
has shown he can win with an average, game manager qb. He nearly beat the Steelers with Tyler Palko after all.