PITTSBURGH — Two years from free agency in a robust quarterback market, Ben Roethlisberger isn’t concerned with landing a record-breaking contract.
“I care about record-breaking Super Bowl wins and things like that — that’s more important to me,” the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback told ESPN from his football pro camp Sunday in Pittsburgh.
Roethlisberger taught youth players teamwork for about four hours on Father’s Day, and he didn’t sway from that message when discussing his future.
Entering a 15th season together, Roethlisberger, 36, and the Steelers are poised for one last extension with the franchise he has helped win two Super Bowls. But Roethlisberger is content discussing those matters after the 2018 season.
Roethlisberger’s five-year contract, signed in 2015, averages about $20 million per year, which was the market for top quarterbacks at the time. But several quarterbacks have dwarfed that number, with Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan hitting the $30 million mark and Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers to follow.
“It’s important, too, to understand as quarterback of this team, sometimes you almost have to leave a little bit of money behind for other guys,” Ben Roethlisberger said, pointing to members of his offensive line he hopes “get taken care of” in two years. Larry W. Smith/EPA
“I have two years on my contract. I’m not going to be one to sit here and worry about my contract,” said Roethlisberger, who ranks eighth in NFL history with 51,065 passing yards. “That’s not my job. My job is to play football. I’ll let my representation, the Steelers worry about all that stuff. To me, it’s all about going out and playing now. I think there are a lot more, maybe a lot more important people who need to get their deals done now. For me to do it two years out, if it doesn’t make sense for the team, I’m not going to sit here and worry about it.”
And Roethlisberger wants to leave room for teammates to get paid, too.
Asked about the challenges for NFL teams to pay several stars while facing salary-cap hurdles, Roethlisberger said he understands teams are limited and seems willing to help.
“It’s important, too, to understand as quarterback of this team, sometimes you almost have to leave a little bit of money behind for other guys,” Roethlisberger said. “That’s not my job, that’s not my thing to worry about. That’s why I have agents.”
Roethlisberger does have a few ideas for how the Steelers can spend after 2018, though: on his coveted line, which has helped cut Roethlisberger’s sacks in half from his late-2000s pace. Roethlisberger once took 50 sacks in a season but has 58 over the past three seasons.
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — When it comes to Father’s Day, Orlando Brown Jr. doesn’t do anything special since his dad died seven years ago.
Brown will call his mother as well as his brothers and sisters.
“I just take time and remember,” Brown said.
For Brown, he honors his father’s memory beyond one day. Every time Brown steps onto the Baltimore Ravens practice field, he is following his father’s footsteps.
Brown is playing for the same team, lining up at the same right tackle spot and wearing the same No. 78 as the 11-year veteran affectionately known as “Zeus.”
An important piece of that legacy is still hidden on the football field. The biggest symbol of Brown’s emotional bond with his father is a bandanna that’s tucked under his helmet and can be traced back to one of his saddest days.
On Sept. 23, 2011, his father died in his Baltimore home at the age of 40 from diabetic ketoacidosis, a condition that can lead to kidney failure or cause fluid to build up in the brain. When Brown arrived there, he noticed a Ravens equipment bag on the bed that was filled with football gloves and cleats. It also included a white bandanna, which struck a chord with his son.
“He always told me and preached that, ‘You play offensive line; you have to have your own swag. You have to make yourself noticeable, because nobody notices offensive linemen,'” Brown said. “So it was just something [that] I adapted, and from there, it just holds a lot of value.”
Orlando Brown Jr. started wearing a bandanna to honor his father, in whose steps he’ll follow with the Ravens. Jamison Hensley/ESPN.com
Brown remembers his father always wearing that white bandanna, sometimes tying it around his ankle or wrist. To Brown, that piece of cloth represented a piece of his father.
At every practice and game, Brown would wrap a bandanna around his head before strapping on his helmet. This past season, he went with a black one that sported red roses, his father’s favorite flower.
“That became his signature because that was his dad’s, and his dad was a warrior,” Brown’s mother, Mira, told ESPN last year. “He wears that bandanna because this is what my dad would’ve wanted me to do.”
The Browns are the 40th known pair of father and son to play for the same NFL team and the fourth current one, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Brown and his father have similar gargantuan size — 6-foot-8 and 340-plus pounds — and a similar playing style, with a nasty edge. But they’re different players with different pedigrees.
“They thought I was crazy,” Brown told Sports Illustrated in 2003. “Every day [during his rookie season] they asked me to see a psychiatrist.”
Orlando Brown Jr. was a three-year starter for national power Oklahoma and was a unanimous first-team All-America selection. He was selected in the third round this year, and he prides himself on his football IQ.
His father preached to him to play more like his former teammate, Hall of Fame offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden, instead of himself. As Brown Jr. put it, his father wasn’t the most technically sound blocker. So, Brown Jr. broke down film of Ogden, Tony Boselli, Anthony Muñoz and Jackie Slater.
“My dad forced me to learn it more so from a Jonathan Ogden standpoint than [from] him,” Brown Jr. said. “Mentally, I don’t think there’s anyone out there that understands the game or is more instinctual than me. That was my credit to being able to play at such a high level in college, and I look forward to transitioning out to this [level].”
Like his father, Orlando Brown Jr. has a chance to start in the NFL immediately. The Ravens declined to pick up the option on Austin Howard, who started all 16 games at right tackle last season.
The battle to fill that void is between Brown and James Hurst, who started at left guard last season. This offseason, Brown worked his way into lining up at right tackle with the first team and he finished there as the mandatory minicamp wrapped up. It’s the same spot on the Ravens at which his father started 80 games during his two stints in Baltimore (1996-98 and 2003-05).
“I think he’s going to be tremendous,” Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley said of Brown on Adam Schefter’s podcast. “I don’t ever remember going into a game, no matter who we were playing — Auburn, Georgia, Clemson, Ohio State, you name it — and worried about his matchup on that side. He has a love for the game, a hunger and just a true grit about him that you want from all your great offensive linemen. I have a lot of belief in that kid.”
Nightmare path to achieving dream
Brown went from being touted as the best offensive tackle in the draft to the biggest disaster story at the NFL combine.
The numbers that drew the most scrutiny were his 14 repetitions at 225 pounds on the bench press (the fewest of any offensive lineman this year) and his 5.85-second 40-yard dash (the third slowest since 2006).
The social media blitz was merciless, from a derogatory tweet in German to Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger taking a shot at him. Brown said he had to take a break from Twitter because of “so many 12-year-olds telling me they’re stronger than me.”
“It was surprising for me,” Brown said. “My performance at the combine wasn’t even what I expected to do at all — not even close.”
The Ravens weren’t especially bothered by Orlando Brown Jr.’s poor combine showing. Darron Cummings/Associated Press
All of a sudden, it seemed like everyone forgot he was the two-time Big 12 Offensive Lineman of the Year and didn’t allow a sack last season.
After Brown was the seventh offensive tackle drafted, the Ravens made the point that they focus more on the tape than the numbers at the combine. As assistant general manager Eric DeCosta said, offensive linemen don’t have to run 40 yards very often.
“[He’s] just a very, very good player — physical, tough, mean, nasty, didn’t get beat — just a type of guy that we had success with in the past,” DeCosta said.
Special homecoming
Brown wasn’t selected in the first round, but he couldn’t be happier with where he ended up in the draft.
Born the same year as the Ravens franchise (1996), Brown can recount his memories of watching Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and Jamal Lewis practice. He also remembers the times his father knocked over teammates during practice.
Edwin Mulitalo, a former Ravens guard who played on the same line as “Zeus,” had been previously selected to announce Baltimore’s third-round pick. In the green room, he peeked in the envelope.
“I did a double take looking at his name,” Mulitalo said. “Then it clicked.”
During Brown’s pre-draft visit, he handed general manager Ozzie Newsome a note that included a message about how special it would be if he were to play for the Ravens. One team official said Brown would’ve signed right away if that had been a recruiting trip.
“Knowing Zeus, he would be so proud to have this come full circle,” Mulitalo said.
Training together leading up to the draft, Brown told Andrews how amazing it would be if he was selected by Baltimore.
“It’s almost a dream come true for him,” Andrews said. “It’s really special. It’s one of those cool things that you see in sports. You can’t take that for granted.”
Brown’s father pushed him to be the best in some unusual ways. He told his son that he would leave his games if he didn’t start playing harder. He once made his son promise to be a 10-year NFL veteran and a Hall of Famer.
There was also the time Orlando Brown Sr. used Adam Sandler as motivation. Sitting down his son, he put in the movie “The Waterboy” because he wanted him to play like the angry, underdog linebacker Bobby Boucher.
Brown carries all those memories of his father, along with a bandanna, as he begins his NFL career.
“My biggest wish right now is I wish he could see it,” Brown said. “At the end of the day, that’s my motivation for getting to this point and continuing to make sure I carry on his legacy.”
METAIRIE, La. — Forget Mike, Will and Sam. The New Orleans Saints should just label all of their linebackers, “Alpha.”
After signing Demario Davis to a three-year, $24 million contract in free agency, the Saints now have four guys with a history of playing middle linebacker and serving as the signal-calling “quarterback of the defense” in the NFL with the communication device in their helmets.
Last year they added A.J. Klein and Manti Te’o. The year before that, it was Craig Robertson. And second-year weakside linebacker Alex Anzalone served that role for a while in college.
It remains to be seen how the Saints will use all of them — especially since they spend most of their time in nickel defense with only two linebackers on the field.
But it’s clear they like having as many of those alpha types in the room as possible. As linebackers coach Mike Nolan put it, they consider it “a good problem to have.”
“You know, when we use the term ‘green dot’ sometimes, people think about the helmet on the field,” Nolan said of the green sticker that identifies which player is wearing the communication device on game days. “But we also talk about it in the way of, ‘This guy is a leader.’ We have a number of guys with leadership skills [and Davis] does have that. That did make his stock and his value greater.
“What’s nice is we have about four or five guys that could wear it. Some teams sit there and they’re fighting over two guys or they’re thinking, ‘We really don’t have a guy that takes charge.’ In our case, I think we’ve got five guys that can wear it, if not six.”
Of course the Saints’ linebackers are all saying the right things about how competition brings out the best in everyone and they’re willing to play wherever the coaches ask — as you would expect from veteran leaders and captains.
But they also readily admit they take a lot of pride in being counted on as that quarterback of the defense who never leaves the field.
“You know, all of us want that headset,” said Te’o, who wore it with the San Diego Chargers before Klein primarily wore it in New Orleans last season when healthy. “I think it’s not just to have that responsibility, but to have that trust [from coaches and teammates].”
“You know, how I’m built, I guess at the core of me I’ve always been ‘the’ guy. But that’s not why I’m here,” said the 29-year-old Davis, who said he was drawn to the Saints because of their history of success and great offensive play after he didn’t get to experience much of either in six years with the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns. “This team has been in a great place for years, and I’m here to win. So wherever the coaches need me, I’m here to serve, I’m down with it, I’m 100 percent cool with it.”
Davis and Klein, however, stressed that it’s very important to them to prove they are an “every-down linebacker” one way or another.
That will come down to proving they can be an asset in coverage, which is more important than ever in the modern NFL.
Davis hasn’t played much Will linebacker in his career. But the Saints think he has the traits to do it, and Davis said he has worked hard in recent years to become a better coverage linebacker.
“That’s what you always want to be. I’ve always taken pride in being a three-down linebacker,” said the 6-foot-2, 248-pound Davis, who admitted he didn’t pay enough attention to detail in coverage early in his career, but now considers it one of his strengths.
“I think I got beat a lot more than I was wanting to, especially my third and fourth year in the league. I was thinking because I’m fast and I can run in space that I can guard these guys. But it’s not [that simple],” Davis continued. “It’s a lot more technique that goes into it. And when I started spending my offseason focusing on detailing my coverage, and adding that to being effective blitzing and effective in the run game, it helped me to have more of an all-around game.
Linebacker Manti Te’o’s performance during the 2017 season proved he can be an impact player for the Saints. Sean Gardner/Getty Images
“And I try to pride myself on being one of the most elite cover ‘backers in the league.”
Davis just had the best season of his career with the Jets in 2017, playing all 1,115 snaps with career highs of 135 tackles and five sacks.
Klein and Te’o acknowledged that coverage is an area of their game they’ve tried to constantly develop, since they weren’t asked to do it a lot in college or early in their careers.
“That’s a big thing. It’s important [to be considered an every-down linebacker],” said the 6-1, 240-pound Klein. “Obviously I came here to be playing — to play every down. And I know I can be that type of linebacker.
“We’re versatile, and I know from week to week, game plans change. Last year I got moved around, Craig got moved around, Manti got moved around. That’s just the nature of the game that we’re in. That’s 2018. That’s the NFL nowadays. You have to be versatile.”
Last year in New Orleans, Klein played the strongside (Sam) position on base downs, then moved inside to Mike in nickel packages.
Anzalone was the primary weakside linebacker (Will) in both base and nickel packages before he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in Week 4. Robertson primarily took over that Will role after that. Te’o played Mike in base packages.
This season, the most likely setup is Davis at Mike, Klein at Sam and Anzalone at Will in base packages. But it’s much harder to project the nickel lineup.
Perhaps it will be Klein at Mike and Davis at Will — which we saw when they were on the field together in last week’s minicamp. But the Saints love Anzalone’s potential, and he might prove to be their best coverage linebacker. So that could make it an either-or decision between Davis and Klein on passing downs.
One way or another, Klein said the linebackers all have a common goal — to prove that they’re a better option than a sixth defensive back.
“Obviously for us [as a position group] we’re gonna be selfish, because we don’t want to be in dime,” Klein said. “We want two linebackers on the field at all times.”
PHILADELPHIA — The most recent version of the “Philly Special” was thrown by Carson Wentz, and it wasn’t weird at all.
The quarterbacks were going through individual drills at the Philadelphia Eagles minicamp Wednesday. Assistant coaches and trainers ran into the flat as the QBs worked on their three-step drops. But when Wentz’s turn came up, Nick Foles stepped in and ran the route, which mirrored his path during the now-famous fourth-and-goal touchdown catch against the Patriots that helped propel the Eagles to their first title in 57 years.
Nick Foles admitted he has a “different dynamic” with Carson Wentz after what happened last season, but their friendship and honesty with each other have helped them avoid any tension. Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
One of the most memorable images from the Super Bowl celebration in Minneapolis is of Wentz with his hand affectionately on Foles’ head, both players gripping the Lombardi Trophy while being showered with green and white confetti. A less circulated image is the one of Wentz sitting at his locker stall a few moments later, doubled over with his head near his knees as “We Are the Champions” played over the loudspeaker. After a word from a teammate, Wentz rose, wiped his face and continued congratulating his teammates.
It’s hard to know exactly how much it hurt him to not be on the field that day and deliver the city its first-ever Super Bowl win himself, but placing yourself in his shoes quickly gives you an idea of the type of emotions that must have pulsated through him, and perhaps pulsate through him still.
All of this makes the breeziness of their interactions all the more striking. At one point Thursday, on the last day of minicamp, Wentz, Foles and the rest of the quarterbacks had a friendly accuracy competition to see who could hit the crossbar in the fewest amount of throws, the group smiling — and maybe busting some chops — along the way. A beat earlier, Wentz and Foles stood side-by-side as Nate Sudfeld worked the offense and simultaneously raised their arms above their heads like twins when Sudfeld dropped a dime into the corner of the end zone. They’re sharing a locker wall, sharing reps, and in some ways, sharing the allegiance of their teammates, and yet signs of any tension in their relationship are hard to detect.
“I think the big thing is we’re honest with one another, and our friendship has always come first,” Foles said. “I know at times when he’s injured and watching me play, that’s difficult, but at the same time, he’s always been extremely supportive.
“It’s definitely a different dynamic, but at the same time, it wouldn’t work if him and I weren’t such great friends and understanding of each other. That’s a big piece of it that people don’t probably understand, because it gets a little tricky — but not for us because we’re handling it like men in the locker room. At the end of the day, we want the team to be successful whoever is back there at quarterback.”
Sudfeld likened the quarterbacks to brothers. They bust each other’s chops and are highly competitive, whether they’re throwing darts, playing Pop-A-Shot in the locker room or out on the practice field.
“Nick is kind of the older guy, a little more laid back than Carson,” Sudfeld said. “We can joke with each other and talk about music or talk about just random stuff.”
They also share a mutual faith, which Wentz believes has been the key to keeping their bond strong in unique circumstances.
“That kind of just breaks down every barrier, every wall,” Wentz said. “We realize there’s so much more to this life and such a bigger purpose out there than arguing over a lot of little things.”
Wentz was a top candidate for league MVP last season before tearing the ACL and LCL in his left knee against the Los Angeles Rams in December. He finished second in the NFL with 33 touchdown passes and led the team to an 11-2 record, positioning the Eagles as the No. 1 seed in the NFC. After a rocky start, Foles caught fire during the playoffs, completing 73 percent of his passes and throwing six touchdowns to one interception, including three TD strikes in Super Bowl LII.
The Eagles quarterbacks shared a moment after their Super Bowl victory, and that bond has continued through offseason work this year. AP Photo/Frank Franklin II
Foles is now an icon in Philadelphia. He recently joked about the awkwardness of meeting a fan who had Foles’ face tattooed across his entire back. He’s held in high esteem by owner Jeffrey Lurie and the front office and has the full respect of his peers. Starting right guard Brandon Brooks even restructured his contract so the Eagles could give Foles a new deal this offseason.
Still, there is no haziness when it comes to whose team this is.
Wentz opened some eyes during offseason workouts. He looks more mobile and participated more than expected. The goal for a return remains Week 1.
Foles can earn $500,000 per game under his restructured contract, which includes $14 million worth of incentives and a mutual option for 2019. He’ll be rewarded if he does end up playing a significant amount this year and will have the opportunity to find a starting gig next season.
“You want what’s best for the team,” Foles said. “Ultimately, Carson is getting ready to play. He’s getting healthy. But at the same time, I’m ready to go out there and play. I think I’ve shown that. But it takes more than one person to make a team. That’s what’s beautiful about this team.
“Everyone puts their egos to the side when they walk into this building. They’re all working for the Philadelphia Eagles. I think that’s why we have something so special here.”
