CANTON, Ohio -- The Steelers know this could be Ben Roethlisberger's last season. It also might not be the case.
But one of the reasons they signed Mike Tomlin to a three-year extension during the offseason through the 2024 season is because they have faith in Tomlin being the guy to help shepherd the Steelers into the post-Roethlisberger era, especially with GM Kevin Colbert now going year-to-year with his contract.
Then again, there's an even more simple reason behind the three-year extension.
"The reason we gave Mike an extension is because we like having him as head coach," team president Art Rooney II said this week. "Look, when you realize that the players change, having stability at the head coaching position is an asset. We’re happy to have Mike for a few more years at least."
Tomlin is 145-78-1 in 14 seasons as the Steelers' head coach. The team is 8-8 in the postseason during his tenure, but just 3-6 since going to the Super Bowl in 2010. They were, however, a team undergoing a defensive transition from 2011 through 2014 as many of the players from the Super Bowl runs in 2005, 2008 and 2010 had retired or left in free agency.
Now, the defense is one of the league's best and the offense has been quickly rebuilt from the Antonio Brown-Le'Veon Bell days.
Roethlisberger has been the only constant to this point throughout his career -- with the exception of a large chunk of the 2019 season when the quarterback was out with an elbow injury.
One thing is certain, by 2024 Roethlisberger will most certainly be gone.
"I do think it’s an advantage," Rooney said of the relationship between Tomlin and Roethlisberger. "They know each other well and know what each other likes to do, so there’s not much guesswork when it comes to the relationship between the head coach and our quarterback. They like working together."
But it obviously can't last forever. And the organization is entrusting Tomlin to help find that next franchise quarterback.
"(There's) no magic to the number," Rooney said of three-year extension. "We’ve done one year on occasion. We’ve done two years on occasion. This time we did three. I think it’s a sign we hope Mike is here it’s enough time that if we do have to make a transition at quarterback, there will be time to make those transitions."
MORE STEELERS
• The NFL is moving forward with the idea that it will have full stadiums in September, even though some areas of the country are having an uptick in COVID-19 cases because of the new Delta variant. "At this point, we’re not anticipating that," Rooney said to the league reverting back to having no fans in stadiums. "But as we’ve seen, anything can happen. We’re keeping our fingers crossed. So far, we’re expecting to have a full stadium and our fans, tickets have sold like it’s going to be full capacity, so all systems are go." No team would be more happy to have fans in the stadiums than the Steelers. As things currently sit, the 2022 salary cap ceiling agreed to by the NFL and NFLPA is $208.2 million. At that number, the Steelers would have $74 million in available cap space, the most in the NFL, not including rollover money from 2020. The Steelers currently have $12.2 million in cap space available this season they can roll over if it's not spent. "We’d always like to have more room than we have, but we’re at a manageable point," Rooney said. But if for some reason the league went back to empty stadiums at some point this season, that would obviously affect those cap numbers. -- Lolley
• It's going to be a big weekend for Steelers college scout Bruce McNorton. Not only will McNorton, who joined the team as a scout in 2000, get to see one of his mentors, Bill Nunn, inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He'll also have a family member going in. McNorton, who played 10 seasons in the NFL as a cornerback for the Lions and Dolphins, is the father-in-law of former Lions receiver Calvin Johnson, who is married to McNorton's daughter, Brittney. Johnson, of course, was voted into the Hall of Fame this year. When Brittney and Calvin Johnson had a baby boy a couple of years ago, I only semi-jokingly asked McNorton if the child had any scholarship offers yet. Those are some good bloodlines. -- Lolley
PENGUINS
• The Penguins have sold out 632 consecutive games, a streak that dates to 2007 and is the longest active one in the NHL. Just how much longer it will go on is hard to say, though, and on-ice performance isn't the only thing that might influence that. The recent resurgence in COVID-19 infections led to PPG Paints Arena officials reinstating a mask mandate for events there, beginning with the James Taylor/Jackson Browne concert earlier this week. There's no way to predict how long that regulation will remain in effect, but if it's still in place when hockey season arrives, it's conceivable that it could deter some fans from buying tickets, whether it's because they're concerned about being in close proximity to strangers without knowing whether they've been vaccinated or simply because they don't want to be anywhere that would compel them to wear a mask for several hours. Add in some discontent among at least a segment of the fanbase with personnel changes that have -- or have not -- been made during the offseason so far, and selling tickets might prove to be more challenging than it has been in about 15 years. Of course, excitement could be rejuvenated if management makes some player additions that meet widespread approval, and having the coronavirus brought under control would only be a plus for trying to draw the paying public back to the arena this fall. -- Dave Molinari
• Penguins partisans who are distressed by the lack of high-impact personnel moves since the brief playoff run ended -- and who understand that the team's limited salary-cap space likely has complicated Ron Hextall's ability to pull off some trades or signings that might have appealed to him -- probably don't want to think about how the Penguins' cap squeeze this season includes $1,166,667 that will go to Jack Johnson's buyout. Their cap hit for his contract actually will go up in 2022-23, then drop for the three seasons that follow. -- Molinari
• The Penguins reached an agreement on a one-year, $1.725 million contract with winger Zach Aston-Reese Thursday, rendering his scheduled Aug. 23 salary-arbitration moot. And while arbitration is generally regarded as a reasonable way to settle disagreements about salary, there are some downsides to going through with the process. The biggest probably is the very nature of the hearings themselves. The player's representatives do everything possible to underscore their client's value and contribution to his team; management tries to hold down how much the player will be paid, which generally involves casting the player in as negative a light as possible. Most players seem to understand that that's simply an unfortunate aspect of the business, but it's also easy to understand how some might take those criticisms personally and allow it to have a negative impact on their long-term relationship with the franchise. At the very least, it's safe to assume the Penguins are glad they won't have to find out how Aston-Reese would react to any of the criticisms that might have been leveled at him during a hearing. -- Molinari
PIRATES
• The Pirates went into the trade deadline wanting to more or less have their deals done with their draft picks, which they did for 18 of the 19 players they signed. The lone holdout was for fourth-round pick Owen Kellington, which took longer to get together than expected. The trade deadline had to have played a factor, because the agreement wasn’t reached until a few hours after the trades ceased at 4 p.m. Whatever the hold up, Kellington’s $600,000 bonus capped one of the most expensive draft classes in recent memory. In addition to spending every dollar of their bonus pool ($14.394 million) and 5% overage ($719,700), they spent $967,000 on players taken rounds 11-20 (about $140,000 of this counted against the deal for Braylon Bishop) and then $539,775 for tax on spending that 5% overage. All total, that comes out to just over $16.5 million. Want a comparison to simpler times? In 2011, the last year without bonus pools, the Pirates spent just under $17 million. That class produced a couple All-Stars in Gerrit Cole and Josh Bell. The Pirates won’t complain if history repeats itself. -- Alex Stumpf in Cincinnati
• Both deals came together quickly during the trade deadline Friday, and it’s hard to call either trade bad, but by sending southpaws Austin Davis to the Red Sox and Class AAA reliever Braeden Ogle to the Phillies, the Pirates don’t have much left-handed depth either in the majors or minors besides Chasen Shreve. Sam Howard is on the injured list and has seen his spin and results tank of late, and Anthony Banda is a new waiver claim here for a tryout. The Ogle trade was a bit surprising because he had done well for Indianapolis this season and at the alternate training site last year. But there weren’t any plans to add him to the roster now or even this offseason. So rather than almost surely losing him in the Rule 5 draft this December, the Pirates got Abrahan Guttierez, the catcher they almost got from the Phillies in the nixed Tyler Anderson trade. -- Stumpf
• It’s a modest gain, but as a team, the Pirates have gone from -2.3 base running runs in the abbreviated 2020 season to +2 so far in 2021, according to FanGraphs. It may not be a huge turnaround given that was one of the areas Derek Shelton stressed coming into the year, but there have been some good individual moments, like Bryan Reynolds moving up a base on a ground ball to third base to set up the game-winning run this weekend. “That’s who we are,” base running and first base coach Tarrik Brock told me in Cincinnati. “That’s our team. That’s a characteristic of our city that we want to take on.” Brock calls it “SAT base running:” He wants them to run smart, aggressively and for the team. “We need to make plays, hunt the next base,” he said. “... We want to see how close to the edge we can get without falling over.” After making 20 outs on the bases last year, tracked by Baseball-Reference and the ninth-most in baseball, they’ve made just 26 this year, tied for the fifth-fewest. Perhaps they haven’t made huge strides here yet, but it looks like a step in the right direction. -- Stumpf