Mason rudolph

[NorthCoast]

I'm assuming the cap doesn't go down, but stays about the same at $200M. Maybe they have to borrow from future cap increases to do that.

I had a post about this somewhere, but were above that number with something like 30 guys under contract.

And that doesn't include the big deal that Watt has earned.

It does include Ben's $41M IIRC. And cutting / retiring him saves us $20M.

I think that's something that will happen now given his play over the last month and that keeping him means there won't be much around him.

And if I'm wrong and it's not next year, I think it's certainly in the next 3.

Doing it now means there's one year of bad cap. If we extend Ben, it's probably more than 1 year.

I'd rather rip off the bandaid. But the Rooneys might go another way.

Roethlisberger said "I'm playing to get my OL a Superbowl"... but if those guys are cut/gone next season then there is probably little incentive for him to stick around. So the way to go about this is to release DD, Pouncey and AV. Then see what BR decides before making the decision for him.

[Northern_Blitz]

Roethlisberger said "I'm playing to get my OL a Superbowl"... but if those guys are cut/gone next season then there is probably little incentive for him to stick around. So the way to go about this is to release DD, Pouncey and AV. Then see what BR decides before making the decision for him.

I think we keep DD, but not Pouncey and AV.

We'll see how much Ben is motivated for the game checks (which are considerable, even if you already have more money than you could spend). And if the organization would actually cut him if he doesn't want to retire.

[flippy]

I hate thinking this, but I think Mason might give us a better chance to win now than Ben.

MR is a little slow on the decisions, but he doesn’t look afraid to hold the ball to go downfield. And I even think he might have more arm than Ben right now.

The best thing Mason does is his touch on his long ball. He gives WRs a chance to make a play and despite our cases of the dropsies, I think our top 4 WRs are all capable of beating defenders for balls.

If we can stretch the field a little, I think Conner can still be pretty effective both running and catching short passes.

The only thing I didn’t like yesterday was Mason getting pulled for Dobbs after a long completion. Guy makes a play then our own coaches disrupt his rhythm. Doh!!!

[Chucktownsteeler]

I hate thinking this, but I think Mason might give us a better chance to win now than Ben.

MR is a little slow on the decisions, but he doesn’t look afraid to hold the ball to go downfield. And I even think he might have more arm than Ben right now.

The best thing Mason does is his touch on his long ball. He gives WRs a chance to make a play and despite our cases of the dropsies, I think our top 4 WRs are all capable of beating defenders for balls.

If we can stretch the field a little, I think Conner can still be pretty effective both running and catching short passes.

The only thing I didn’t like yesterday was Mason getting pulled for Dobbs after a long completion. Guy makes a play then our own coaches disrupt his rhythm. Doh!!!

Flippy,

I couldn't agree more with you. Especially pully MR after the completion. It reminded of the Cowher - TZak - Kordell years.

MR throws a nice long ball. Gives the WRs a fighting chance.

[hawaiiansteel]

I think they're is no way we let Ben play his last contract year.

Eating that cap hit means we lose too many of the players your talking about.

I honestly don't believe the Rooneys would cut Ben after everything he's done for this franchise.

[feltdizz]

I honestly don't believe the Rooneys would cut Ben after everything he's done for this franchise.

Yeah.. I don’t see it happening either. I think Ben has our FO in his hip pocket until he decides to hang them up.

I could see them extending him this year if he plays well in the playoffs.

While I’m not a fan of paying big money to aging QB’s and people think I hate Ben.. I really can’t see how the FO moves on from him because he had a rough patch after an 11-0 start.

It will be frustrating when we have a few games of WTF ball when Ben takes weeks off but in the end, moving on from a QB with a 12-3 record just sounds weird.

[pittpete]

Mason picked up where he left off last yr (Pre Earl Thomas hit).

He throws a good ball and his deep ball well above average.
He has some mobility ... and spreads the ball around.

My takeaway from today... Rudolph has a future....its up to him how far he takes it.

Id definitely agree with this statement
I thought Mason looked good except for the bonehead INT and not taking the checkdown on his only sack

[Northern_Blitz]

I honestly don't believe the Rooneys would cut Ben after everything he's done for this franchise.

But we could certainly let him know that he won't play if he comes back and that he should retire.

We did something to make Troy walk away (even though it seriously hurt the relationship).

But it's possible that we go with loyalty on this one.

Letting him play out his contract is probably also a good way to tank. We'll just lost more players that way.

I wonder if he'll want to play after we cut Pouncey and he sees what the roster looks like when the QB's cap hit takes up ~40% of the cap room? Or even if we keep Pouncey and we have even less room for other players.

[pittpete]

Cutting Pouncey costs us $6,475,000 in dead $$$$
Cutting Ben costs us $22,250,000 in dead $$$$
If Ben retires wouldnt he have to give back the signing bonus for 2021?

[Ghost]

As of 12/21 - ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on Monday that 38-year-old Roethlisberger intends to fulfill the final year of his contract and return as Steelers QB in 2021. Why? Schefter says that the QB is enjoying himself too much to hang it up yet.

As I understand it - Ben has a roster bonus of $15M due in March. Retiring would save the Steelers $19M (bonus + 2021 salary of $4M) with a cap hit of $22.25 in dead money for 2021.

[Northern_Blitz]

Cutting Pouncey costs us $6,475,000 in dead $$$$
Cutting Ben costs us $22,250,000 in dead $$$$
If Ben retires wouldnt he have to give back the signing bonus for 2021?

I'm pretty sure cutting Ben (or him retiring) saves us $19M against the cap.

If he plays out his contract his cap hit is $41.25M.

You are correct that cutting him will leave a significant dead money cap hit ($22.25M)*.

If you want to calculate the cap savings, you can look at a site like the one below and subtract the "dead money" column from the "cap hit" column in the year that he gets cut.

In Ben's case, we save $19M if we cut him (or he retires). That's $41.25M - $22.25M = $19M.

I agree that the dead money sucks. But it's there because we kicked his cap hit down the line as far as we could (including a max restructure last off season that moved almost $10M from this year to next year).

Source: https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/pittsbur...isberger-3595/

* I think there are some timing issues here because we'd want to cut him before the roster bonus ($15M) comes into play. I think that means that we won't be able to cut him later and spread the cap hit over 2 years.

I think this is why players / agents put big roster bonuses like this into the end of contracts. It means that cutting the player hurts the team if they don't do it early. Getting cut early give the player time to find a new team if they want so they don't get stuck taking a super cheap deal like Cam Newton.

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

Cutting Pouncey costs us $6,475,000 in dead $$$$
Cutting Ben costs us $22,250,000 in dead $$$$
If Ben retires wouldnt he have to give back the signing bonus for 2021?

It isn't just what it costs in dead money because the team does not pay out the money, it has already been paid out and counts against the cap whether the player plays or not. The only difference is the savings, which is typically salary, roster bonuses/workout bonuses etc.

So, Pouncey costs $6.475M bonus + $8M salary in 2021. Either way the team accounts for the bonus money, but if he is cut/traded/retired then the team saves $8M real money, cap money. If you can find a replacement in the draft, or via FA, under $8M in 2021 cap hit then you save money against the cap.

As far as Ben retiring, no, he doesn't give it back nor is there cap relief on the $22.5M prorated bonus, but there is $19M in cap relief.

[SteelerMaine83]

The organization is such that I think they may stand pat with Ben, and let him play the last year of his contract in 2021. After that, if he still wants to play, the hardball begins. If he plays next year at an acceptable level for a starting pro-QB (say as he has done this year), I think they could offer him a series of one year contracts at seriously below-average QB salary, say $10m base with performance based incentives of up to $10m more. If he makes all the bonuses, we’d win the Super Bowl with a $20m QB. Hmmmm.

That cap hit for 2021 means we will have to cut $20-25m to meet the cap, cut another $5m to pay the rookie pool, and that is before we even entertain keeping some of our FA or adding others. Cutting Haden (age and performance vs. Nelson) saves $7m; cutting Pouncey (to help make Ben consider retirement) saves $8m; cutting MacDonald saves $5.2m; and giving TJ a 8 yr, $176m contract with a signing bonus of $40m and a first year salary of $1m saves $4m more. That’s $24.2m to get to cap compliance. Also means that C, CB will be added to our other pressing needs such as OT, RB, etc. Grim off-season it will be.

Let’s make this year count.

[SteelerMaine83]

Also, as a follow up, Mason showed me yesterday that he is an okay backup for us. As I said, Ben plays out his contract in 2021, let’s assume retires, we wheel and deal in this years draft to move off our 1st to get a 2nd and 3rd, add two OL from the deep draft, Jamie Newman as a dual threat QB, and a CB with our four top 100 picks.
That way, Newman sits a year, we give Mason a $5m one year deal (with incentive bonuses to add some of he starts/performs to get to $10m total) and they compete for a starting job. That way, you pay $6-11m for your starting QB with an open competition. If neither works out, you’ll be drafting a QB high in 2023 (the 2022 QB class looks lean right now).

[NJ-STEELER]

The organization is such that I think they may stand pat with Ben, and let him play the last year of his contract in 2021. After that, if he still wants to play, the hardball begins. If he plays next year at an acceptable level for a starting pro-QB (say as he has done this year), I think they could offer him a series of one year contracts at seriously below-average QB salary, say $10m base with performance based incentives of up to $10m more. If he makes all the bonuses, we’d win the Super Bowl with a $20m QB. Hmmmm.

That cap hit for 2021 means we will have to cut $20-25m to meet the cap, cut another $5m to pay the rookie pool, and that is before we even entertain keeping some of our FA or adding others. Cutting Haden (age and performance vs. Nelson) saves $7m; cutting Pouncey (to help make Ben consider retirement) saves $8m; cutting MacDonald saves $5.2m; and giving TJ a 8 yr, $176m contract with a signing bonus of $40m and a first year salary of $1m saves $4m more. That’s $24.2m to get to cap compliance. Also means that C, CB will be added to our other pressing needs such as OT, RB, etc. Grim off-season it will be.

Let’s make this year count.

thx for that.

this is why I say let’s wait until we hear what the cap actually is.

Then we can see what Omar can come up with. I don’t know what he can or cannot do with the cap figures, but if there’s a way, I’m think he’ll find it