If the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to extend the contract of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger this offseason, they have roughly 100 days left to get it done. However, by the sound of things on Tuesday, no significant progress has been made in that area.
“I tell my agents if anything important happens let me know,” said Roethlisberger when asked how contract negotiations are currently going. “If it’s not important, I don’t care. I just want to play ball because that’s all that matters to me. So, first and foremost, to me, is just putting this helmet on and getting out here and practicing.”
If any serious contract extension negotiations are going to take place between now and the start of the 2014 regular-season, they’re most likely going to happen when the team reports to training camp later on in the summer.
Roethlisberger’s current contract runs through the 2015 season, so if nothing gets done this offseason, there’s always next offseason.
Roethlisberger is scheduled to earn $12.1 million in 2014 and another $11.6 million in 2015. Even though his cap charges in both of those years are over $18 million due to past restructurings, they’re still numbers that the Steelers can deal with being as the roster is in turnover mode from old to young
Over the course of the offseason, the Steelers have maintained that they intend to have Roethlisberger finish his entire career in Pittsburgh and the quarterback has also said that’s his desire as well. A contract extension will likely get done at some point, so it just appears to be a matter of when.
