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Let’s get this out of the way right now: Ben Roethlisberger is not good anymore. Can he finish the season and lead the Steelers to a playoff berth? Absolutely. Pittsburgh may very well make the postseason and will likely be one and done unless they get somewhat lucky.
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So why do we think that this is the end of Big Ben in the NFL?
The problem with Big Ben is that all of his shortcomings are finally catching up to him.
Ben Roethlisberger has never been big on watching film
He never had to spend hours in the film room because of how gifted he is in terms of size and power. Roethlisberger towers over his offensive line and can spot open receivers with relative ease. As long as his ball placement is solid, he doesn’t even need to read the defense that thoroughly.
He also knows that because of his large stature he can shed pass rushers sometimes. So when you are a big young quarterback that sees the field and can barely be sacked, you tend to slack off when it comes to watching film.
The problem comes when your arm slows down and when you can’t avoid sacks anymore. Ben has been sacked 21 times in the 9 games he has started this season. This puts him on pace for 42 sacks which would be his worst since the 2013 season.
Big Ben didn’t like grinding in the weight room
This will inevitably catch up to you at some point. Roethlisberger’s arm is nowhere near to what we used to see when Antonio Brown was his primary receiver. The current receiver corps of the Steelers is very talented too but Big Ben just can’t chuck it like that anymore. His current QBR is 44 which is the lowest QBR in Roethlisberger’s career excluding the 2019 season when he played in only 2 games.
He was never one to spend a lot of time lifting weights and his body is responding accordingly.
Eating healthy was never something Roethlisberger gave priority to
Similar to the power workouts, Ben was never one to watch his food intake closely. Not that he didn’t work out and not that he ate only garbage, bun when you are near the end of your career, you want to become more strict if you want to have any sort of longevity. Now, his body is falling apart, he is on the injury report every week (typically for more than one ailment), and his legs can’t move during games.
So what if Big Ben doesn’t retire?
This will not end nicely if he wants to keep playing. Yes, the Steelers are an organization that pays its stars a lot of respect but at some point, someone (maybe Mike Tomlin) will have to go to him and let him know that he is not an NFL quarterback anymore.
The stats were the only thing that kept Big Ben afloat, but they aren’t there anymore. He throws check-downs and cannot extend plays. There’s a good chance that towards the end of the year we will finally see him costing the Steelers some games.
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