Steelers want Ben Roethlisberger back in 2021 ... but at reduced salary-cap number

Team president Art Rooney II said Ben Roethlisberger wants to return to the Pittsburgh Steelers for an 18th NFL season in 2021.

The Steelers would like to have their franchise quarterback return for one more year, too, but under one condition:

They have to negotiate around a $41.25 million salary cap number that is scheduled to hit the books in March.

“Ben wants to come back,” Rooney II said Thursday in a video conference call with beat reporters. “We’ve left that door open. We’ve been up front with Ben in letting him know that we couldn’t have him back under the current contract. He understands we have some work to do there.”

Although Roethlisberger is scheduled to earn $4 million in base salary plus a $15 million roster bonus in March, that $19 million in cash doesn’t constitute half of the quarterback’s salary cap total. Because of a prorated $37.5 million signing bonus Roethlisberger received in 2019 when he negotiated his current contract, plus a restructuring of $9.75 million into future years, the $41.25 million cap figure is the highest for any NFL player in 2021.

The Steelers already have $215 million in salary cap obligations to the top 51 players under contract for next season. The salary cap was $198.2 million in 2020 and could be as low as $175 million next year because of the pandemic that drastically reduced revenues.

“I think it’s fair to say this will probably be the most difficult salary cap challenge that we’ve had in a long time, maybe ever,” Rooney said.

If the Steelers release Roethlisberger or he retires — which would be unexpected given his stance to Rooney that he wants to play in 2021 — his contract would still include $22.5 million in “dead money.” The key for the Steelers is reducing Roethlisberger’s cap hit in 2021 to as close to $22.5 million as possible.

That means the Steelers would have to sign Roethlisberger, who turns 39 in March, to an extension that is backloaded to reduce his cap hit, or they would have to convince him to sign a new one-year deal for less than the $19 million he is owed this year.

“It takes two to figure that out,” Rooney said. “Whether we can agree with what he wants or vice versa, we’ll just have to see.”

In his return from right elbow surgery, Roethlisberger completed 65% of his passes and threw for 3,808 yards with 33 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions. Roethlisberger, however, threw six of his interceptions in his final six starts, and he was intercepted four times in the Steelers’ 48-37 loss to Cleveland in the wild-card round.

“We’d like to see Ben back for another year if that can work,” Rooney said. “There’s a lot of work to be done to see if that can happen.”

The Steelers also have Mason Rudolph, who is entering his fourth season, on the roster. Rudolph was the backup last season after making eight starts in 2019 while Roethlisberger missed 14 games with a right elbow injury.

“We are comfortable that he is a quarterback who can play in this league and be a starter in this league,” Rooney said about Rudolph.

The Steelers also signed former Washington first-round pick Dwayne Haskins to a futures deal but might not be done shopping on the quarterback market. Joshua Dobbs, the No. 3 quarterback last year, is an unrestricted free agent, and Devlin “Duck” Hodges signed a futures contract with the Los Angeles Rams.

“When you look at our room, we obviously are going to have to add somebody to the room here this offseason,” Rooney said, “and so we’ll look at all the opportunities we have to do it.”