The fluidity involving this year's salary cap in the NFL has caused a lot of uncertainty for teams when it comes to planning out their 2021 plans.
And that's affecting the Steelers' ability to know what they will do regarding the status of 38-year-old quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, as well as his own decision on whether or not he will return in 2021.
Kevin Colbert said Wednesday that he, Mike Tomlin and Art Rooney II have all met with Roethlisberger individually, but that the team can't finalize any kind of contract talks with the quarterback until everyone involved knows what the coming season will look like.
"When we met previously, we all agreed that we will get together at some point once we get further down the road when we have a better understanding of what free agency is, what the cap might be and, from a personnel standpoint, we will have a better idea what type of players will be available to us in free agency and how we might want to address either adding our own or adding someone from those classes," Colbert said. "We'll have a much better feel and are getting a much better feel of the draft class. All of that comes together collectively and we can have a better idea of what our team will be in 2021, and how can he be a part of it and make that group as good as it can be?
"It's an ongoing process that just doesn't involve him, but involves the players around him. I'm sure he's going to want to see what kind of team we can keep together under our current situation. And hopefully we can make that correct adjustments to keep that group together as much as possible."
The Steelers will never use the term rebuilding. But it sounds like as much as they would like to have Roethlisberger back, they feel that if their cap situation restricts them too much, there's no reason to bring him back next season.
"It is a cap (thing) first and foremost because we will have to be in compliance with the salary cap once the new league year starts. What kind of team can we put together or keep together under those cap restrictions?" Colbert said. "We know we're up against it. We would have been up against it in a normal year, and we were willing to do the things we did via free agency, extensions and negotiations, etc.
"That's not unique to us. There's probably two-thirds of the league that faces similar issues. How that comes together in the next few weeks, we'll continue to look at it. It is first and foremost financial because we have to be in compliance. And then we'll make guess-timates to put the best team together for our sake and for Ben's sake. What kind of team can he anticipate being around him if we decide we can move forward together?"
The NFL and NFLPA in the preseason set the 2021 salary cap floor at $175 million because of the pandemic. That's down from $198.2 million this past season. Recently, there have been suggestions that it will be higher than that, but with TV contract negotiations currently taking place, nobody is quite sure just how high.
The NFL would like to get new TV deals in place before the March 17 start of the new league year when all teams must be in compliance with the salary cap. If those TV deals are in place, the NFL could borrow money from future years to increase this year's cap. If not, a cap in the $180 to $185 million range would leave the Steelers and at least half of the other teams in the league over that number or close enough to it that they will have to make roster adjustments to make any moves.
With 19 pending unrestricted free agents -- including starting offensive linemen Alejandro Villanueva and Matt Feiler and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster -- that could leave the Steelers with little room to sign even their own players, something that could factor into Roethlisberger's decision.
Compounding that are the retirements of tight end Vance McDonald and center Maurkice Pouncey, two of Roethlisberger's closest friends on the team. While their retirements cleared $14 million in salary cap space, bringing the Steelers closer to cap compliance, it also opened up two more holes on the roster.
Roethlisberger is currently slated to count $41.25 million against the team's 2021 salary cap, a number inflated by a contract restructure he did with the team to create salary cap space in 2020. He is due a salary of just $4 million with a $15 million roster bonus due on the third day of the new league year.
If he's not on the roster, he still counts $22.25 million against their 2021 salary cap. That would be a cap savings of $19 million. So the Steelers and Roethlisberger must decide if they can get his cap number down to a cost that will create significant space to allow the team to make some roster moves around him.
"Ben Roethlisberger did a lot of really good things last year. We're anticipating he could still do some good things moving forward," Colbert said. "Hopefully, there's a way we can figure out and do what's best for the organization and do what's best for Ben. Hopefully, he'll be able to see that and feel the same way we do. There's a lot of work that needs to be done, not only with Ben, but with the whole unrestricted free agent class and our whole cap situation, as well."
Coming off major elbow surgery that limited him to six quarters of play in 2019, Roethlisberger threw 37 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions -- including the playoffs -- in 16 games 2020. But he, and the team, faded down the stretch.
The Steelers weren't satisfied with that finish, which ended with a first-round playoff loss to the Browns after an 11-0 start. And improving the roster is a key component of everything the Steelers want to do.
That means improving the offensive line around Roethlisberger and providing him with a better rushing attack if he returns. The Steelers averaged 136.8 yards rushing per game in the first five weeks of the season, only to fall off dramatically in the final 12 games when they averaged just 59.9 yards per game on the ground.
"Going back on Ben’s 2020, he really did do some special things. At the beginning of the year, we talked about watching what he was doing. He was doing some incredible feats as we were building that 11-0 record," Colbert said. "A lot of that was him performing at crucial times during games. Down the stretch, he didn’t play as good. But we didn’t play as good around him. We didn’t play as good on defense. We talked about the running game failing us in a time of year when a running game is critical.
"Can he still do some special things? Absolutely. Did he do that to his expectations? He’d be the first to tell you no. Ben cares about one thing. He cares about winning a Super Bowl. When it doesn’t happen, he’s never going to be satisfied. Hopefully, whatever team we come up with in 2021, we’re not talking about a team losing a first-round playoff game."
If Roethlisberger doesn't come back, the Steelers likely would turn things over in 2021 to fourth-year quarterback Mason Rudolph.
Rudolph started one game in place of Roethlisberger last season, playing in the regular-season finale at Cleveland after the Steelers had clinched the division title. He threw for 315 yards with two touchdowns and an interception in a 24-22 loss.
"The game he started this year, it was probably the best game he played for us," said Colbert, noting that the Steelers went 5-3 in games started by Rudolph in 2019. "Unfortunately, we came up a little bit short. But it was very encouraging to see Mason play like he did in a tough situation. Cleveland was desperate to win. It was at their home field. And we came within two points of beating them. That was encouraging. Hopefully, we get to see Mason take some more steps in whatever role he gets or playing time he gets, be it preseason or regular season or whatever. But it was encouraging to see him in that Cleveland game."
