Ben Roethlisberger has confirmed he will return to the Pittsburgh Steelers for his 14th season with the franchise.

While the Steelers were confident of Roethlisberger continuing his career, there was some speculation that he could retire.

Roethlisberger called the process the prudent thing to do at this stage of his career.

Following the Steelers loss in the AFC Championship Game, Roethlisberger said he would "take this offseason to evaluate, to consider all options, to consider health and family and things like that, just kind of take some time away to evaluate next season, if there's going to be a next season."

Mike Tomlin stayed in contact with him over the past few months.

"As an organization, we have been hopeful that Ben would return this year," Tomlin said, according to Steelers.com. "Ben and I have had many conversations, and I understood at this point in his career he is going to have to think about his long-term future. There is no question Ben wants to win [another] championship for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and we know he will do everything possible to lead our entire team to achieving that goal."