Roethlisberger’s New Deal Is 5 Years, $99 Mil

The Steelers signed Ben Roethlisberger to a new contract yesterday. The financial details are starting to surface, and the total value is reportedly $99 Mil, and could reach $108 Mil after escalators.

If these numbers are correct, it makes Ben the second highest paid player behind Aaron Rodgers. In terms of new money, Rodgers’ contract sits at $22 Mil and Ben’s is $21.85 Mil. According to Albert Breer, Roethlisberger’s new deal pays $65 Mil over the first three years (’15,’16, and ’17) which is a record.

It’s difficult to say how his new deal will change his impact on the 2015 salary cap. His 2015 base salary was $11.6 Mil, and his cap hit was $18.395. I have a hard time imagining his 2015 cap hit will go up very much, if at all. The deal can be structured in lots of ways, and it’s even possible that it could go down slightly.

As Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk points out, Friday afternoon is generally reserved for teams and agents to drive by slowly while throwing bad news at the media’s doorstep, in hopes it won’t get the attention it normally would. So, it is a little odd that the deal was announced when it was, without any hint of financials. Florio suggests that this indicates that it was a team friendly deal, but that’s a bit of a deductive leap.

“It’s kind of hard to contain my smile when I’m excited to be at a place like this, to be home, and to be able to be here for my whole career,” said Roethlisberger via Steelers.com. “I know most of you have heard me say for a long time that this is where I have always wanted to be and where I have wanted to spend my whole career. This organization has given me an opportunity to do that. I just feel very blessed to have the opportunity to play for such a great franchise, with great coaches, great teammates, and the best fans in the world. I’m extremely happy that we got a deal done. It’s incredibly fair for both sides. We are just excited to move forward and get some more Lombardi trophies in that room next door.”

Roethlisberger added that he believed it was a fair deal. “I think it was an easy deal to get done from what I have heard from my representatives and then talking to the Steelers,” said Roethlisberger. “Easy deals that get done quickly are fair deals.