Steelers GM Colbert: Work to do to bring back Big Ben
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Ben Roethlisberger is still a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yet despite optimistic overtones from both the team and its longtime franchise quarterback, Roethlisberger’s return for an 18th season hardly looks like a given.
While stressing Roethlisberger “did a lot of really good things” in 2020, general manager Kevin Colbert on Wednesday stopped short of wholeheartedly endorsing the idea of Roethlisberger being in the fold in 2021.
“We have to do what’s best for the organization, do what’s best for Ben,” Colbert said. “But there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, not only with Ben but with the whole unrestricted free agent situation.”
The Steelers have 19 players heading to free agency, including wide receiver Juju Smith-schuster and outside linebacker Bud Dupree. That doesn’t include perennial Pro Bowl center Maurkice Pouncey or tight end Vance Mcdonald, close friends of Roethlisberger who have retired in recent weeks.
Roethlisberger currently holds a $41.25 million salary-cap hit in 2021, the highest of any player in the league. Both sides have taken turns in recent weeks talking about the need to lower that number considerably, particularly with the Steelers facing the difficult prospect of navigating a salary cap that might be $15 million to $20 million less than in 2020 thanks to a significant decline in gate revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Compliance will require restructuring some of the more cap-unfriendly contracts and potentially cutting a couple of high-priced veterans, which puts Colbert in a tight spot.
How does he improve a roster he admits wasn’t good enough to move beyond the first round of the playoffs in 2020 without having money to keep his top-end free agents, let alone land a few?
“We’re making guestimates on what we can do to put the best team together, for our sake,” Colbert said. “For Ben’s sake, what team can he anticipate being around him if we decide we can move forward together?”
Partner points the way home
Martha Quinn, one of the first video jockeys on MTV, said, “Demand no more out of your partner than what you are willing to give yourself.” That is a reasonable thought for a bridge player.
Partners do well to concentrate on defense. That is much more important than bidding.
This is the type of deal that is a stroll in the park for experts but guesswork for the inexperienced. How should East-west card to defeat four spades?
West, who could anticipate his partner’s singleton spade, was tempted to sacrifice in five hearts. How would that contract have done?
There is an important defensive leading rule. Usually, we lead the ace from ace-king. But there are three times when you should lead the king from ace-king: first, and rarest, when you have ace-king-doubleton; second, at trick one in a bid-and-raised suit by your partnership; third, after trick one, which we looked at in yesterday’s column.
Here, West leads the heart king, and East signals enthusiastically with the nine because he holds the queen. Now West should see how to defeat the contract, shifting to his singleton diamond. Declarer wins on the board, plays a club to his ace and leads a sneaky spade jack, feigning a finesse for the queen. But West dashes in with his ace, leads the heart seven to his partner’s queen and receives a diamond ruff to defeat the contract.
Finally, five hearts goes down two if the defense goes: club to the ace, diamond to the 10, club king and club ruff. But that’s from the twilight zone.