Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reports Friday on Twitter that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is lobbying the front office and head coach Mike Tomlin hard to match the one-year, $2.5 million offer sheet that restricted free agent Emmanuel Sanders signed with the New England Patriots.
You can certainly understand why Roethlisberger is lobbying hard, as not only has he lost wide receiver Mike Wallace this offseason, he could now be a few days away from losing Sanders as well. This can\’t make the Steelers quarterback happy one bit, but his lobbying will not sway the ultimate decision.
Roethlisberger has lobbied for other things in the past, such as a tall wide receiver, with nothing to show for that effort. Earlier in the day it was reported that the Steelers were split 50/50 in the organization as to whether or not to retain Sanders for at least one more season by matching the offer sheet, which would leave the team with right around $750,000 in salary cap space.
Should the Steelers not match the Patriots offer sheet, Roethlisberger will be left with Antonio Brown, Jerricho Cotchery, Plaxico Burress and a few other inexperienced wide receivers to throw to next season. The Steelers are, however, expected to draft at least one wide receiver in the upcoming draft and possibly even two.
