With a new contract for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ greatest leadership role is behind them, which means it’s time to move on. The first and foremost task is to investigate which of their outstanding free agents they want to keep and at what cost.
From now on, 19 players should have unlimited free hand at the beginning of the new league year on March 17th. This is led by some big names like Alejandro Villanueva, Bud Dupree and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster. It is easy that Villanueva is the least preserved. At best, they can try to keep one of the three unless they do something drastic in terms of cuts.
Smith-Schuster has been regularly tossed around as the most likely player to keep, and he has made his own views pretty clear about his desire to stay in Pittsburgh – provided they could pay him what he’s worth.
The four-year veteran even recently commented on his teammates’ social media posts on contracts. Under a post by Zach Banner, he wrote, “I wish I could get one,” with a series of crying emojis. In an NFL feature on Roethlisberger’s new deal, he wrote, “Let’s go,” and then, “Now let’s talk.”
There is a clear mutual interest in keeping the band together, and one could convince oneself that the wage cut Roethlisberger made this off-season might help, though that cut didn’t move the needle nearly as much as the distribution of his wages did.
Chase Claypool posted a TikTok video yesterday about Smith cobbler in which he wrote with a laughing emoji: “I have your back @juju”. In the first half of the video, titled “When Another Team Tries to Sign JuJu,” he is seen wearing glasses, scanning a piece of paper representing a contract and holding a pile of money.
The second half of the video reads, “Me,“ He’s staying in Pittsburgh. ”From the opposite side of the screen, wearing a Steelers hoodie, he bursts violently into the frame and tosses the wad of money, then happily counts the small handfuls that remain Sparkle while dancing off-screen.
Smith-Schuster is said to make an easy eight-figure annual salary, perhaps in the range of $ 15 million a season. Whether or not Pittsburgh can afford that may depend heavily on how willing they are to be flexible in structure, which means a smaller signing bonus than what they could get on the open market and a low base salary for the first Year would require to adjust their salary cap situation.
@Chase
Dw I have your back @juju 😂
♬ Straw hat – STRAWHAT AND
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