Ben Roethlisberger joins the $100mm club…should Steelers fans be worried?
Big Ben Roethlisberger signed an 8-year, $102mm extension today that guarantees him $36mm. Considering Big Ben is taking the same guaranteed money that Peyton Manning and Michael Vick got a few years ago, it’s hard to argue the Steelers are paying him too much. Big Ben has not only brought a SB title to Pittsburgh, but is coming off his best season:
- 264 completions
- 404 attempts
- 65.3% completion
- 3,154 yards
- 32 TDs
- 11 INTs
- 104.1 paser rating
Personally, I think this is a smart deal. Locking up a young franchise passer is smart business. Given the inflation we’re seeing in salaries this year, they could’ve paid him a lot more and set a new market for franchise QBs, but instead basically met the pre-existing market. That’s good business.
But looking a little deeper, should Steelers fans be worried about this contract? Ben becomes the 7th QB in NFL history awarded a $100mm contract. In each prior case, the team has fared better BEFORE the contract than after.
| Player | Name | Year | Win%Pre | Win%Post |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brett | Favre | 2001 | 63.9% | 61.6% |
| Drew | Bledsoe | 2001 | 50.5% | 0.0% |
| Donovan | McNabb | 2002 | 55.6% | 66.2% |
| Daunte | Culpepper | 2003 | 48.8% | 45.9% |
| Michael | Vick | 2004 | 65.3% | 48.5% |
| Carson | Palmer | 2005 | 60.7% | 46.9% |
In all but Donovan McNabb’s case, the QBs landing $100mm contracts have led their teams to a worse winning percentage after the fact. In three cases, the players winning percentage has plummeted, including the three most recent $100mm QBs (Culpepper, Vick, Palmer).
Is this just a random statistical quirk? Probably so. Drew Bledsoe got hurt and only played two games for New England after signing his extension. In Mike Vick and Carson Palmer’s cases, their team’s defenses have fallen off a cliff coincident with their new contracts. But can that not be blamed, at least in part, to the fact these new $100mm deals removed some of the flexibility GMs had in strengthening other parts of the team? Perhaps.
Either way, for now I still say the Steelers were smart to give Big Ben the big extension. Now if the Steelers end up losing more games than they have to date with Big Ben under center, we can revisit this phenomenon more intently.
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