Roethlisberger: Can anyone spare a dime?

[Box_O_Rocks]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07144/788646-66.stm

No athlete in the history of Pittsburgh pro sports earned more money than the Penguins' Hall of Famer. Roethlisberger could be the one to do that.
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"We've had some discussions with them," agent Ryan Tollner said. "I'm not sure what they're planning, other than certainly they're considering they want to do a deal.
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Roethlisberger's next deal looms large over the organization already and might be one reason they won't or can't pay six-time Pro Bowl guard Alan Faneca enough to keep him here beyond the 2007 season.
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The lack of serious negotiations to this point underscores that point, even if other teams have written new contracts for their franchise quarterbacks after their second or third seasons in the league.

Four examples of that are Tom Brady, who earned a new deal after his second season with the New England Patriots; Carson Palmer, whose contract was extended by the Cincinnati Bengals in his third season; Jake Plummer, restructured by the Arizona Cardinals after his third season, and Donovan McNabb, whose rookie deal was redone after his third season with the Philadelphia Eagles.
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Tollner promised there won't be a peep of discontent this year from Roethlisberger about his contract.
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Our approach is to communicate behind closed doors with the team, get something done and never have public scrutiny at all."

Does anyone else find the last two sentences hilarious considering they're part of a news story about early contract negotiations? I wonder how good Faneca's "ole'" move is?

 

[DaBruinz]

Its pretty bad that they mention Brady getting a new contract after his "2nd season" with the team without mentioning that he was scheduled to be a RFA after his 3rd season. Its amazing how with Palmer, the writer doesn't mention that the extension came with Palmer in his 2nd full season as a starter and on his way to setting the Franchise record for TDs. Or how Palmer actually LEADS that team. Or the fact that Roethlingsburger hadn't thrown more than 300 passes prior to last season.

Sorry, but Roethlingsburger doesn't deserve a damn thing. He's a mediocre QB who was on 3 damn good teams.

 

[PatsRI]

If I was Steelers management I would wait to see what he does under a new head coach. Cowher and the QB didn't get along that great but that could have worked in the Steelers advantage. Roethlisberger seems like the type that could backslide if he isn't pushed.

 

[questionman]

Its pretty bad that they mention Brady getting a new contract after his "2nd season" with the team without mentioning that he was scheduled to be a RFA after his 3rd season. Its amazing how with Palmer, the writer doesn't mention that the extension came with Palmer in his 2nd full season as a starter and on his way to setting the Franchise record for TDs. Or how Palmer actually LEADS that team. Or the fact that Roethlingsburger hadn't thrown more than 300 passes prior to last season.

Sorry, but Roethlingsburger doesn't deserve a damn thing. He's a mediocre QB who was on 3 damn good teams.

I would imagine that all the QBs that they mentioned were a similar situation to Brady, just the number of seasons was different.

 

[BelichickFan]

Its pretty bad that they mention Brady getting a new contract after his "2nd season" with the team without mentioning that he was scheduled to be a RFA after his 3rd season.

Additionally Brady was making peanuts (league minimum I'm sure) as a 6th round pick as opposed to Roethlisberger who was picked something like 7th overall and has a big rookie contract.

 

[BelichickFan]

I would imagine that all the QBs that they mentioned were a similar situation to Brady, just the number of seasons was different.

They were all #1 picks except Plummer and Brady. The Patriots had much more reason to re-do Brady than the other teams did.

 

[DaBruinz]

I would imagine that all the QBs that they mentioned were a similar situation to Brady, just the number of seasons was different.

Then you'd be imagining wrong. Plummer, Palmer, and McNabb all had much longer rookie deals because they were all 1st round picks except plummer.

McNabb's rookie deal was for 7 years.
Palmer's deal was for a minimum of 6 years.
Plummer's contract was a 6 or 7 year deal.

Brady's was a 3 year deal. Brady's extension was given to him in the last year of his contract after he'd already helped lead this team to the SB.

So, could you explain how they were similar situations?

 

[TomBrady'sGoat]

Its pretty bad that they mention Brady getting a new contract after his "2nd season" with the team without mentioning that he was scheduled to be a RFA after his 3rd season. Its amazing how with Palmer, the writer doesn't mention that the extension came with Palmer in his 2nd full season as a starter and on his way to setting the Franchise record for TDs. Or how Palmer actually LEADS that team. Or the fact that Roethlingsburger hadn't thrown more than 300 passes prior to last season.

Sorry, but Roethlingsburger doesn't deserve a damn thing. He's a mediocre QB who was on 3 damn good teams.

I agree that they'd be much better off looking at years until free agency rather than years in the league. If his current deal has him signed for 3 more years what's the point of extending him now?

I also agree he hasn't proven himself worthy of a mega-deal. I wouldn't go so far as to call him mediocre since he's still young and could still develop into a premier QB, but as of now he is unworthy of such acclaim.

 

[questionman]

Then you'd be imagining wrong. Plummer, Palmer, and McNabb all had much longer rookie deals because they were all 1st round picks except plummer.

McNabb's rookie deal was for 7 years.
Palmer's deal was for a minimum of 6 years.
Plummer's contract was a 6 or 7 year deal.

Brady's was a 3 year deal. Brady's extension was given to him in the last year of his contract after he'd already helped lead this team to the SB.

So, could you explain how they were similar situations?

Oops. Like I said, I imagine that those other guys had a couple of more years left on their deals and Brady's was all but done.

 

[questionman]

I agree that they'd be much better off looking at years until free agency rather than years in the league. If his current deal has him signed for 3 more years what's the point of extending him now?

I also agree he hasn't proven himself worthy of a mega-deal. I wouldn't go so far as to call him mediocre since he's still young and could still develop into a premier QB, but as of now he is unworthy of such acclaim.

I agree. It's not like he signed for peanuts. He was a first half of the 1st round draft pick contract.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

The only reason to rip up a QB's rookie deal, or even extend it dramatically, is if you need cap relief or he's vastly outperformed his contract (like say a Brady on a 6th round deal). The Bengals did that with Palmer just 2 years in, presumably to create more cap space in the present to re-sign his Oline, and it almost cost them big time when he got his knee blown up two weeks later. They did it with Vick two years in - extending him for 10 years!! - for reasons that elude me...and probably elude Arthur Blank at this point. Peyton played out his entire rookie deal, and even had the tag temporarily slapped on him before getting his second deal.

Ben's deal was for 6 years (through 2009) for $22M with another almost $18M in incentives. $4M to potentially $7M per pending he performs like a franchise QB would seem to be a good deal for both sides at this juncture. Ben has shown flashes of brilliance, periods of maddening inconsistency, and pretty sketchy judgement on and off the field over the first half of his deal for a guy deserving of a franchise QB contract. With a new HC and a clean slate this should be the year the Rooney's decide if they truly got their franchise QB or they just got a big kid with a relatively benign but still troublingly stubborn ego who projected franchise potential but isn't really any more than a serviceable piece when placed in an otherwise well constructed puzzle.

McNabb has begun grousing a little about his $100M deal (that was heavily backloaded and is in it's midline trough at the moment). He's another guy whose agent I wouldn't pay any attention to until he proves to me he brings more to the table IN HIS OWN RIGHT in Philly than a Jeff Garcia did at a fraction of the cost.

 

[spacecrime]

Oops. Like I said, I imagine that those other guys had a couple of more years left on their deals and Brady's was all but done.

Another difference might be that Brady had just won a superbowl and was scheduled to make $389 thousand, and the other guys already had multi-million dollar contracts in place.