Things Steelers Nation thought they heard this past week
I always quote the Spider-Man movies when taking my mantle to write on this site: “With great power comes great responsibility.”
The ability to reach millions of football fans on the Internet via websites such as this one, or various media platforms, is one such responsibility. Unfortunately, there are outlets which do not operate under the guise of professionalism or integrity, instead, forgoing these ideals in order to generate clicks – and thus ad revenue – from intentionally misleading people.
Some of the headlines I read over the last week ventured into this area, picking up on 280-character or less tweets and heading off to the races with some rumored information contained in such a tiny update.
Among those muddy headlines are some of the topics included below, which are akin to being in grade school, and “telling a friend” as word travels around the building and the story becomes a taller tail with each retelling. What you may have thought you heard, isn’t necessarily what was said.
Here are a handful of those stories making the rounds.
Ben Roethlisberger retirement
It would seem extraordinary to see Ben Roethlisberger come back at age 40, after the send off he’s had this season. However, he’s not officially retired yet, and may not do so until later this year, which would save the Steelers a tidy sum on their salary cap.
Once Roethlisberger makes it official I would expect the #Steelers to rework his contract for salary cap purposes. They can lower his cap number from $10.34M to $3.705M and defer $7.75M to 2023 by having him wait until June to officially retire.
— Jason_OTC (@Jason_OTC) January 18, 2022
The paperwork can be done earlier, however, for a post-June 1 release, so we may not have to wait too long for word of how this will impact Pittsburgh’s offseason plans. This is just more of a reminder that according to the NFL, the “old gunslinger” isn’t officially finished.
Kevin Colbert and Keith Butler retirements
I’ll give these two stories more credence based on actual NFL insiders reporting them, but in both scenarios neither Kevin Colbert or Keith Butler have made anything official.
In both instances, the rumored retirements have only been reported by a single outlet/entity: NFL Network.
Mike Tomlin alluded to retirement talks with Butler during his Tuesday press conference, but it was along the lines of “we’ve had those talks,” which is actually nothing new – especially with Colbert, who has been on a year-to-year deal now for several seasons. This was Tomlin’s exact quote:
“Butts has had conversations about this potentially being his last year. He and I haven’t had an opportunity to sit down. I’m doing player interviews, he’s doing player interviews, and so we haven’t had a detailed conversation in that regard.”
Until we get an official word, we can stop speculating on replacing persons who haven’t shared their intentions of leaving their current posts.
Mike Tomlin trade target
Somewhere, some oddsmaker started tabulating betting odds for the favorites to be the new head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
On that list is Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin – and you know the drill – as soon as someone caught wind of it, it was shaped into the Raiders having interest in Coach T, presumably via a trade.
Every large “news” outlet from Heavy to Yahoo! ran with it, skewing the perception of casual fans who then take those articles as factual.
Don’t forget that Tomlin was the target of another stupid rumor several months ago as USC looked for a new head coach too. Neither of these “stories” have legs and only exist in the land of fiction.
Mason Rudolph and Dwayne Haskins as starting QBs
The Steelers conducted a number of exit interviews with players this weekend, with many of those same players being made available to the media for questions as well.
Among them were both of the Steelers current backup quarterbacks, 2018 third round pick Mason Rudolph, and former Washington 2019 first round pick Dwayne Haskins.
Both passers expressed their commitment to the team and competing for the starting job which is being vacated by Ben Roethlisberger, which is a big nothing burger to anyone who watched this past preseason or training camp.
The Steelers have obviously invested in both men and it should come as no surprise that each is eager to be the starter in Pittsburgh. Yet, some of the less than ethical websites construed some of their words in order to drum up comments and clicks – don’t fall for their trap.
This was the Steelers plan all along, regardless if a third quarterback gets added to this mix.
Steelers interested in (insert name) as their new quarterback
Look. The Steelers haven’t shown interest in anyone yet.
They can’t. They’re not permitted to. Have you not heard of the legal tampering period?
There’s so many (stupid) takes out there about players who are still under contract to their teams, such as Aaron Rodgers, Jimmy Garoppolo, Russell Wilson, and others (including Ravens backup Tyler Huntley) that cannot be talked to by the team much less “rumored” to be on the Steelers radar.
Ditto for college athletes who won’t start going through a formal draft process until the NFL Combine in February. The first opportunity to talk with them will be at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama on February 5th. Official visits, pro days, etc. are to follow. But as of now, rookies are off limits too.
Internally, the Steelers are likely talking about all of the above, but that’s not something that could remotely become public nor can they officially speak with agents of the other party they may be interested in.
So please, pump the brakes on this quarterback insanity!
