Source: Adam Schefter - ESPN
Adam Schefter, of ESPN, reports on his Twitter feed, "Pittsburgh contacting teams to trade Roethlisberger for top 10 pick. At least one team considering it."
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The most likely trade partners would have to be Buffalo and Oakland, followed by Jacksonville and then Cleveland and Seattle. The Steelers brass would be relieved to have his problems become someone else's headache for this year and the future, take note that they are reaching out to other teams, not vice versa. The trade for Byron Leftwich when the team had already re-signed Charlie Batch was a sign that they might be working on a contingency plan.
The Steelers may find it impossible to even get rid of Roethlisberger at a discount because of how much negative publicity he has generated in the last few weeks. Unlike Michael Vick, Roethlisberger would be acquired at the height of the storm around his behavior. I wonder how much of this trade talk is posturing by the Steelers. It could be more a public relations move as they show their fan base (and Roethlisberger) how serious they are about this. Coach Mike Tomlin said it best earlier talking about the NFL business in general: "I'll tolerate you until I can replace you". They felt they could replace Santonio Holmes. It seems to me that they don't truly feel they can replace Ben Roethlisberger. But stranger things have happened. Stay tuned.