What will Ben Roethlisberger’s new deal look like?

[Steely McBeam]

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As the 15th anniversary of his Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger‘s selection as the 11th overall pick in the draft approaches, Roethlisberger has signed a contract that will dwarf the base six-year, $22.26 million deal he received in 2004. So how much will Roethlisberger make?

Although the Steelers haven’t been shy about paying Roethlisberger close to market value, Roethlisberger was careful about not letting out details of his last deal. That contract, signed in March 2015, put him at $21.85 million per year in new money, not far behind Aaron Rodgers‘ former rate of $22 million per year, the top of the market at the time.

Rodgers is now at $33.5 million per year in new money, and Russell Wilson recently jumped to $35 million. Our guess is that Roethlisberger’s new contract falls somewhere between Matt Ryan‘s $30 million per year new-money average and Rodgers’ current rate.

The new contract will be a two-year extension. If the Steelers remain true to their past business practices, they will pay guaranteed money only in the form of a signing bonus and first-year salary.

With $5 million already earned in March and $12 million more due this season, Roethlisberger could get a signing bonus in the range of $45 million, since that’s the only guaranteed money he’ll receive on what will be a three-year commitment. The two-year extension possibly will fall between $60 million and $64 million, putting the new-money average between $30 million and $32 million and the total value from signing of the new three-year deal at $77 million to $81 million, with an average worth at signing of anywhere from $25.67 million to $27 million.

For now, this is just as semi-educated guess. The real numbers eventually will be disclosed, even if Roethlisberger and his agent refrain (as they did in 2015) from trumpeting the numbers right out of the gates.