Art Rooney II acknowledged that mutual desire between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Ben Roethlisberger in a statement Wednesday morning.

"Ben Roethlisberger and I met yesterday morning and we had a productive meeting" Rooney said. "We were able to discuss a lot of things that relate to where we are and where we want to go. Ben assured me that he is committed to coming back to help us win, and I told Ben that we would like to have him back to help us win a championship. We both understand that the next step is to work out Ben's contract situation."

The final year of Roethlisberger's current deal comes with a $41.2 million cap hit, although a contract restructure and extension could lower that by a maximum of about $14 million.

Mike Tomlin was recently diagnosed with COVID-19.

Tomlin, who is set to enter his 15th season at the helm of the organization, is in good health.

The virus also affected the Steelers' coaching staff during the season with then-quarterbacks coach Matt Canada and special-teams coordinator Danny Smith missing time due to COVID-19 protocols.

Kevin Colbert gave a tepid endorsement of Ben Roethlisberger remaining with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2021.

"As we sit here today, Ben is a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers," Colbert said. "... He reiterated that to us that he wants to continue to play, and we told him quite frankly we have to look at this current situation. ... With Ben's current cap number, some adjustment will have to be made."

Roethlisberger will almost certainly take a sizable pay cut from his $41.2 million cap hit for 2021.

"Ben Roethlisberger is on the team," Colbert said Wednesday. "Ben Roethlisberger did a lot of really good things last year. We anticipate that he could still do some good things going forward.

"Hopefully there's a way that we can try to figure out and do what's best for the organization and do what's best for Ben. Hopefully he'll be able to see that and feel the same way we do. There's a lot of work that needs to be done, not only with Ben, with the whole unrestricted free-agent class and our whole cap situation as well."

Ben Roethslisberger will meet with the Pittsburgh Steelers next week to discuss his future and also his contract.

Art Rooney II made it clear in his annual state of the Steelers news conference that Roethlisberger could not return on his $41.2 million cap hit for the 2021 season, the final year of his contract.

"I think we've been upfront with Ben in letting him know that we couldn't have him back under the current contract," Rooney said last week. "I think he understands we have some work to do there. We'll have more conversations internally and we'll have more conversations with Ben, and we'll have to know what the cap number is to finalize some of those decisions."

Roethlisberger is willing to provide the team cap relief.

The Steelers can save around $14 million in 2021 cap space if they convert most of his base salary and roster bonus into a signing bonus, although they would carry over that money to future years.