Roethlisberger re-do saves $3 million in cap space

Posted by Mike Florio on February 28, 2013, 11:33 AM EST
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As expected, the Steelers have restructured quarterback [URL="http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/1181/ben-roethlisberger"]Ben Roethlisberger[/URL]’s contract. As not expected, they’ve done the deal at a time when doing so will help the Ravens reduce the exclusive franchise tender to their own franchise quarterback, [URL="http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/4677/joe-flacco"]Joe Flacco[/URL].

According to Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Roethlisberger has restructured his contract to create $3 million in cap space.

As recently explained, the Steelers [URL="http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/26/roethsliberger-restructure-would-push-future-cap-numbers-even-higher/"]could have cleared up to $7.1 million[/URL]. But that would have pushed his future cap numbers even higher.

The move drops Ben’s 2013 cap number from $19.6 million to $16.6 million. And that takes him out of the top five quarterback cap numbers for 2013.


Ben is replaced by [URL="http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/1813/philip-rivers"]Philip Rivers[/URL] and his $17.1 million cap number. Which drops the exclusive franchise tender to $19.134 million, saving $500,000 for the Ravens, if they choose to use the exclusive tag on Flacco.


This week, the Ravens have seen the exclusive franchise number fall more than $1.3 million, via the new [URL="http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/1163/tom-brady"]Tom Brady[/URL] and Ben Roethlisberger contracts. If both teams had waited until March 5 to do the deals, the Ravens would have been forced to tender Flacco at $20.464 million.


It could be that both teams believe that the Ravens will opt to go non-exclusive, which is expected to result in a cap number of $14.6 million. Regardless, the gap between the two numbers is now more than $1.3 million smaller.