ORLANDO, Fla. — Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger acknowledged Wednesday the window is closing on the Steelers to win another Super Bowl. So when he learned last week the Steelers promoted quarterbacks coach Randy Fichtner to offensive coordinator he was excited about the news.
Roethlisberger, who will turn 36 in March, said starting over in a new offense would have been too much to handle at this stage of his career.
“Whenever you learn a new offense and have a new system come in, you take a step back,” Roethlisberger said Wednesday morning after the first Pro Bowl practice of the week in Orlando. “We’ve been so productive the last five or six years. Why would you want to take a step back when the window isn’t a huge window? The line is back, a lot of players are back. Let’s try to keep the ball rolling. That’s why it was important that we don’t change a lot.”
Former coordinator Todd Haley’s contract was not renewed despite the Steelers’ consistently ranking among the league’s top statistical offenses during his six-year run as coordinator. Haley was hired as Cleveland’s offensive coordinator Wednesday.
Fichtner has already talked to several Steelers players about some tweaks to the offense. Roethlisberger gave a few hints Wednesday about what those tweaks might be, including going back to some things that were successful when Bruce Arians coordinated the offense from 2007-11.
“There might be some stuff that would go back to what we had with the B.A. system,” Roethlisberger said “Just tweak a couple of things, nothing drastic. We’ll go back to some things. I think we’ll take the best of both worlds. We’ll do stuff that Randy has done in the past. We’ll do some Todd stuff. We’ll use some B.A. stuff. We’ll just kind of take what we all think is best and try to mush them together and create a finished product.”
Roethlisberger has two years remaining on his contract and has told teammates he would like to play at least three more years. The Steelers made the playoffs the past four seasons, but they haven’t played in a Super Bowl since 2011. Their most recent Super Bowl win was in 2009.
Both Super Bowl appearances came when Arians coordinated the offense. Fichtner is an original member of head coach Mike Tomlin’s staff. He coached the receivers from 2007-09 and had coached the quarterbacks since 2010.
“I don’t think much will change,” Roethlisberger reiterated. “I think that was the key. That was important for everybody, that it didn’t change much. We have a window. We have the pieces. Why would you want to try and change it too much? So I think that’s one of the reasons they kept it in-house.”
Running back Le’Veon Bell said he and Fichtner have discussed a few minor changes to the offense, but he agreed with Roethlisberger that only a few minor changes are needed.
“He talked to me about a couple of little things,” Bell said. “We’ll have some personnel changes. Some formations will be different, but it’s just small minor changes.
“I like Randy a lot. I’ve been with him since I was a rookie. I’m sure he’s excited and I’m excited to have him.”
Ray Fittipaldo: rfittipaldo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @rayfitt1.
First Published: January 24, 2018, 7:39 p.m.
