$72 Million Later, Steelers Keeanu Benton Remembers Who Was There Before the Money

Steelers Secure Long-Term Piece to Defense

Latrobe, PA – Steelers Keeanu Benton figured the call was coming.

Eventually.

He just didn’t figure it was coming around 10 o’clock Friday night.

There was no suit waiting. No carefully planned celebration. Benton showed up Saturday looking exactly like a guy who had spent training camp worrying more about football than the possibility of becoming the highest-paid defensive lineman in Pittsburgh Steelers history.

“See, I still ain’t got a haircut today,” Benton joked. “If I knew it was today, I would definitely got cleaned up a little bit.”

Sometimes life-changing money apparently arrives before the barber appointment.

Benton and the Steelers agreed to a four-year, $72 million extension worth $18 million annually. The deal makes the 25-year-old the highest-paid defensive lineman in franchise history on an average-per-year basis.

Think about the names that distinction requires passing in Pittsburgh.

Joe Greene. L.C. Greenwood. Dwight White. Ernie Stautner. Aaron Smith. Brett Keisel. Cameron Heyward.

Now Benton owns a financial distinction none of them ever did.

And when the numbers became real Friday night, Benton’s first thoughts weren’t particularly complicated.

“My family. I want to thank Mr. Rooney, Mr. Omar. I want to thank Mike T. I want to thank my parents, my family, the whole Steelers organization, my beautiful girlfriend, all my boys who I put in the work with to get to this point. I’m just forever grateful God put me in these positions to overcome obstacles and come out on top each and every time.”

Seven Years Before $72 Million

Maybe the coolest part of Benton’s story isn’t where he is now.

It’s who keeps appearing along the way.

Go back to the 2023 Senior Bowl. Benton was finishing his career at Wisconsin and trying to turn himself from a college defensive lineman into an NFL one.

Mike Tomlin was watching.

After one pass-rush rep, one of the NFL’s most recognizable coaches walked over to a young Benton with a few words he wouldn’t forget.

“You see Mike T on television and stuff like that, but he just came up on a side note after a pass rush and told me I was something special,” Benton recalled.

Pittsburgh eventually backed up those words by selecting Benton No. 49 overall in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft.

But there was another coach in Mobile that week.

Patrick Graham.

Graham served as Benton’s head coach at the Senior Bowl. Three years later, Graham is Pittsburgh’s defensive coordinator and Benton is preparing to play for him again.

“Him actually going through with his words and picking me up in the draft in the second round meant the world to me,” Benton said of Tomlin. “And then now I’m with PG, who was my head coach at the Senior Bowl. It’s just, you know, this whole thing just goes full circle.”

Football has a funny way of shrinking an enormous world.

The coach who whispered something encouraging after a Senior Bowl rep helped draft him.

The coach running his Senior Bowl team eventually became his defensive coordinator.

And the Wisconsin teammate who began this journey alongside him was there when $72 million became real.

The Call Included an Old Friend

Benton’s agent, Joe DiBenedetto of 1 of 1 Agency, helped negotiate the deal. But when Benton received the call Friday night, another familiar voice was connected to it: Nick Herbig.

“It was cool to be able to share that moment with Keeanu,” DiBenedetto said. “Less than 100 days ago we were FaceTiming myself him and Nick. It was amazing we got to do it twice in a year.”

Herbig and Benton were teammates at Wisconsin.

Pittsburgh drafted them two rounds apart in 2023. Herbig recently received his own four-year extension from the Steelers, and Saturday he stood nearby during Benton’s media session simply supporting his friend.

There was something beautifully uncomplicated about that.

The contract was done. Sleep wasn’t happening anyway.

So, the two stayed up.

“Me and Nick stayed up for a little bit, just talking and, you know, reflecting on how far we came for real,” Benton said. “You know that seven years done went by kind of fast, but made a lot of progress within it.”

Seven years.

Wisconsin. The Senior Bowl. Draft weekend. Rookie contracts. NFL Sundays. Now two long-term Steelers.

There are plenty of ways to measure Benton’s progress. The football numbers work just fine: 51 games, 40 starts, 123 tackles, 28 quarterback hits and 7.5 sacks through three seasons. His 2025 season produced career highs with 51 tackles, 12 quarterback hits and 5.5 sacks.

Seventy-two million works pretty well, too.

Yet Pittsburgh isn’t paying Benton simply for what already happened.

It’s betting on what comes next.

“I feel like I can play all over the D-line,” Benton said. “Where I’m going to play and how much I’m going to play in each position is up to my coach. So, I’m ready for whatever at this point.”

That’s tomorrow.

For one night, Benton was allowed to look backward.

Then at a phone call around 10 p.m. that changed his family’s financial future.

No haircut.

No sleep.

Just two old Wisconsin teammates sitting around talking about how ridiculously far they had come.

Sometimes the best $72 million stories are the ones nobody had time to prepare for.