The Pittsburgh Steelers' selection of quarterback Landry Jones in the fourth round of the 2013 NFL Draft signified the end for veteran backup Charlie Batch. Batch, who has been with the Steelers for Ben Roethlisberger's entire career, felt there were other underlying motivations for the team's decision to draft a young quarterback. "Ultimately, I think this isn't about replacing me," Batch told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Monday. "Big picture, maybe they're thinking, 'Can we develop Landry Jones to be the starter? Maybe two years from now, he could be our guy for the next 10 years.' We don't know. But with the contracts for quarterbacks these days, he'd certainly be a heck of a lot cheaper than Ben at age 34 or 35 or 36." Batch is jumping the gun a bit with his assessment. While there is a chance it might play out in the future, the truth is the Steelers needed to solidify the position now. Signing Bruce Gradkowski was just the start; Jones provides a less expensive alternate in case Big Ben gets hurt again this season. Source: NFL.com
Roethlisberger probably has at least one more deal in him from the Steelers...probably a 4-5 year deal worth $100-$120M. His cap numbers right now are at almost $18M for 2014 and $17.5M for 2015. I'm sure they'll want to do something with an extension next season...
wow, can't believe batch said these things ........... can't imagine the organization is going to like these comments ...............
batch sounds like a bitter old man. I imagine ben will get one more $100 million deal, hopefully jones provides either a 1. serviceable backup 2. Trade bait for someone looking for a QB 3. Long term replacement for ben
yep, i think that's pretty much what everyone in the world knew the steelers were thinking when they drafted him ............ everyone in the world except charlie batch apparently.
So are Byron and Batch gone and our QB this season are Ben, Gradkowski, and Landry Jones? That sounds good to me.
