Progress made on Bens Contract

**Stlrs4Life** · 03-02-2008, 05:43 PM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08062...d=steelers.xml

Progress made on Big Ben's contract
Sunday, March 02, 2008
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The agents for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will meet in Pittsburgh today with Steelers officials to try to nail down a contract extension.
Ryan and Bruce Tollner have made progress on the new contract for Roethlisberger, who has two years left on his first deal from 2004.
Both Roethlisberger and the Steelers have expressed a desire to have a new contract in place as soon as possible
First published on March 2, 2008 at 12:00 am

I think once we get this done we just might see a couple of minor FA moves. Not many though.

**SteelCityMan786** · 03-02-2008, 05:47 PM

Nice work Rooneys. Git R Done.

**Troyisabeast_43** · 03-02-2008, 06:37 PM

KDKA TV local news just reported its very close to being done and could be announced as soon as tomorrow. Its expected to be the richest contract in Steelers history. Somewhere in the range of 8-10 years with 30 million dollars being guaranteed. It would be great to lock up Big Ben for that long lets get it done Mr.Rooney.

**BlitzburghRockCity** · 03-02-2008, 06:39 PM

Yep I just got the text a couple minutes ago too, this is awesome! I was hoping we'd get this done before we got too far along in the offseason!

http://kdka.com/steelers/Ben.Roethli....2.667360.html

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Ben Roethlisberger has put together a terrific resume in four years as quarterback for the Steelers.

And even though he still has two years left on his current deal, KDKA's Bob Pompeani reports that the Steelers could be close to signing Big Ben to a brand new long-term deal that will make him, by far, the highest paid player in franchise history.

The new deal could be announced as soon as Monday.

Pompeani reports that sources indicate this deal will be somewhere in the neighborhood of eight to 10 years, and based on what the recent market has been for quarterbacks who just signed, guys like Marc Bulger and Tony Romo, the guaranteed part of this deal will be in excess of $30 million.

Roethlisberger has a terrific four year resume and last year proved that the previous season was an aberration. He has emerged as a top tier quarterback and will be paid accordingly.

Pompeani also reports that when he spoke with Art Rooney II and Kevin Colbert last month, they both indicated that signing Roethlisberger was their No. 1 off-season priority.

This deal will be very long, so as to help pro-rate the guarantees, which could make the total number of dollars on paper very high.

Pompeani reports that this deal is not yet signed, but it could be very close.