The Pittsburgh Steelers signed quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to five-year contract (four-year extension) on Friday and up until now, we haven’t seen any numbers or total value attached to it.
According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, Roethlisberger’s new deal is worth $99 million and it can escalate to $108 million.
The #Steelers signed QB Ben Roethlisberger to a 5-year deal worth $99M that can escalate to $108M, source said. Big-time deal.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 14, 2015
Roethlisberger is now the NFL's 2nd highest paid player by new money average at $21.85M per year. Aaron Rodgers is tops at $22M per year.
— Joel Corry (@corryjoel) March 14, 2015
Now, before everybody goes running to say that Roethlisberger really came in under value and gave a hometown discount, it is important to remember that he was set to earn $11.6 million in 2015 as part of his old contract. That means that the new money in the deal is roughly $87.4 million and when that number is divided by four years, you get an average yearly value of $21.85 million. That would put Roethlisberger just under the Aaron Rodgers average yearly value of $22 million number.
We still do not know how much was given as a signing bonus and how much is guaranteed, however. Those numbers should come along shortly.
Update: Albert Breer says Roethlisberger will get $65 million over the first three years of the deal (2015-17), which is a record.
