Bosa Gets Paid

[Ice]

Ah, I see. But Ben won't be off the books anyway. They have to re-do his deal unless he retires after this season, and even then, he's still going to have dead money against the cap for a couple years, I think.

I'm using Spotrac for both. Ben has a cap hit of $23m this season and $41m next year. After that he's off the books. Watt has $2.9m this year and $10m next year (the Steelers have already exercised his option).

The obvious wild card is how long Ben plans on playing.

Every scenario I see for Steelers getting under the 2021 cap without cutting ties with half the team involves signing TJ Watt before his option year and extending Ben the max allowed, which I think spreads the hit over 4 or 5 years. This year is proof anything can happen, but with the situation being what it is right now, I'd say both those things happen. They gave AB his deal before his 3rd season, so it wouldn't be unprecedented. Signing Watt long-term this coming offseason with a cap hit less than his $10.1 million cap hit scheduled for 2021 would go a long way to making the rest of the pieces fall into place. There's also no way they can afford to have a Ben cap hit of 41m. Hell, they can't afford the 2021 cap hit of $22.5 they'd owe if he retires after this season. Those two deals have to happen..

Are we of the opinion that 4 or 5 more years is a reasonable amount of term for Ben?

[Kodiak]

Ask the Rams how "savvy" the Todd Gurley contract was.

Colbert tried to do a much dumber deal with Bell.

[Ice]

Ask the Rams how "savvy" the Todd Gurley contract was.

Colbert tried to do a much dumber deal with Bell.

Not 100% guaranteed, he didn't, but it's obvious we're going to have to agree to disagree.

[bradshaw2ben]

I'm using Spotrac for both. Ben has a cap hit of $23m this season and $41m next year. After that he's off the books. Watt has $2.9m this year and $10m next year (the Steelers have already exercised his option).

The obvious wild card is how long Ben plans on playing.

Every scenario I see for Steelers getting under the 2021 cap without cutting ties with half the team involves signing TJ Watt before his option year and extending Ben the max allowed, which I think spreads the hit over 4 or 5 years. This year is proof anything can happen, but with the situation being what it is right now, I'd say both those things happen. They gave AB his deal before his 3rd season, so it wouldn't be unprecedented. Signing Watt long-term this coming offseason with a cap hit less than his $10.1 million cap hit scheduled for 2021 would go a long way to making the rest of the pieces fall into place. There's also no way they can afford to have a Ben cap hit of 41m. Hell, they can't afford the 2021 cap hit of $22.5 they'd owe if he retires after this season. Those two deals have to happen..

Are we of the opinion that 4 or 5 more years is a reasonable amount of term for Ben?

It's the most they're allowed to do to spread out the hit. Basically, he either blows out his elbow again or walks away champ and the reconfigure his deal accordingly OR they extend him for the max years. There's no in-between that doesn't cripple the team's offseason.

[Ice]

So, numerical thing we'll have to solve down the road. I get.

[COR-TEN]

I'm using Spotrac for both. Ben has a cap hit of $23m this season and $41m next year. After that he's off the books. Watt has $2.9m this year and $10m next year (the Steelers have already exercised his option).

The obvious wild card is how long Ben plans on playing.

Every scenario I see for Steelers getting under the 2021 cap without cutting ties with half the team involves signing TJ Watt before his option year and extending Ben the max allowed, which I think spreads the hit over 4 or 5 years. This year is proof anything can happen, but with the situation being what it is right now, I'd say both those things happen. They gave AB his deal before his 3rd season, so it wouldn't be unprecedented. Signing Watt long-term this coming offseason with a cap hit less than his $10.1 million cap hit scheduled for 2021 would go a long way to making the rest of the pieces fall into place. There's also no way they can afford to have a Ben cap hit of 41m. Hell, they can't afford the 2021 cap hit of $22.5 they'd owe if he retires after this season. Those two deals have to happen..

Are we of the opinion that 4 or 5 more years is a reasonable amount of term for Ben?

I'm guessing 2-3 years max. If the steelers win the SB in one of those years, he might extend another. But I think 5 is a stretch.