Wednesday, February 24, 2021

The Steelers Need To Rip-Off the Big Ben Bandage

 

(NBC)


Obviously nobody wants to see an all time franchise great be forced out of town. Some teams even make the mistake of letting go of a good situation too early, like Indianapolis letting Peyton Manning go to Denver and win another championship and most recently Tom Brady doing the same thing to New England.

But it is clear that Ben Roethlisberger needs to hang it up.

The aging quarterback and troves of Steelers fans would disagree with this statement, seeing as he is in talks with team owner Art Rooney II about restructuring his contract and returning one more year in Pittsburgh. This will prove to be a detrimental mistake for not only the team, but perhaps even Ben's legacy. 

After a respectable 2018 season where he led the league in completions, attempts, yards, yards per game, and interceptions. He commanded one of the most impressive passing offenses in the last twenty years with Antonio Brown, Juju Smith-Schuster, James Washington, and Vance McDonald. Ben would help lead this squad to the playoffs and earn what was likely his last playoff win in the process, until losing 45-42 to the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

Perhaps if the roster in Pittsburgh stayed the same, justifying Roethlisberger staying now would be much easier. However since losing Antonio Brown to contract issues in 2019, the Steelers have been on pace to lose much more of that familiar offense that had been so successful in years past.

Not only would losing two of the most talented skill players on the roster be noticed, but potentially losing the entire left side of the offensive line could be even worse. Maurice Pouncey, the starting center, has already announced his retirement this offseason. As if keeping Ben safe from getting hit by the most talented defensive lineman in the AFC North last season was hard enough, now it becomes a legitimate challenge. 

With all this roster turnover this feels like the perfect time for both sides to say it is the end of the road. Respectfully Ben looked old and exhausted by the time the Washington game came around, in fact he looked like a shell of the man he once was following the playoff loss to the Browns. 

Ben was writhing in pain and not practicing for days at a time throughout the 2020 season. Most practices when he was there, we would see him pictured at the end draped down to his knees with ice bags. I don't think any quarterbacks in league history have found success not practicing, yet remaining the starter. 

Ben hasn't been in game shape since his shoulder injury in 2019 and while his reputation is still tough guy Ben, a lot can change your legacy in one season. Hell, look at Patrick Ewing when he went to play for the Seattle Supersonics, he was far from the man who once dominated The Garden. 

In my defense of Ben, that last playoff game against the Browns would not want to be how I would want my career to end either. It is the equivalent of a father losing to his son in basketball for the first time, the father will always come back to try and kick ass a second time around to show who the alpha still is. However between the Browns and Ravens, it may be hard to even get back to that wild card game again with Ben Roethisberger as your starter.

When it's all said and done, I feel like both sides will regret this move to bring Ben back. By no means would it be a bad thing for Mike Tomlin to looking for his future quarterback of the offense and sacrifice one year of development opposed to sacrificing the 2021 season for Ben's sake. 

--- Dombito

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