Ben Roethlisberger Informs Steelers He’s Returning For 2017 Season

Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger announced via his Twitter account Friday that he informed the team that he will return for the 2017 season.

Informed the team I am looking forward to my 14th season. Steeler Nation will get my absolute best! — Ben.

— BigBen7.com (@_BigBen7) April 7, 2017

Back in January, Roethlisberger implied that he was contemplating retirement.

“I’m going to take this offseason to evaluate, to consider all options,” Roethlisberger said, via CBS Pittsburgh. “To consider health, and family and things like that and just kind of take some time away to evaluate next season, if there’s going to be a next season.”

Roethlisberger was asked if he’s going to play next year to which he replied: “I’m going to take some time and evaluate with my family and just do a lot of praying about it and make sure it’s the right thing for me and my family.”

The Steelers were coming off of a tough loss to the Patriots in the AFC Championship game and he’s dealt with a number of injuries the past few years, so it seemed like he wanted to give himself some time away from the game.

All recent indications have been that Roethlisberger was likely to return this season.

Even so, the Steelers are clearly doing extensive work on quarterback prospects in this year’s draft class and figure to bring in someone at some point in the next few years.

Roethlisberger, 35, is in the second year of his five-year, $99 million contract that includes $64 million guaranteed. He stands to make a base salary of $17.75 million for the 2016 season.

In 2016, Roethlisberger had completed 64.4 percent of his passes for 3819 yards to go along with 29 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 13 quarterback out of 34 qualifying players.