The Ben Roethlisberger era of Steelers football ended the minute the snap from Maurkice Pouncey sailed over his head on the first play from scrimmage of Sunday night’s 48-37 loss to the Browns in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs.
I’ll try and be gentle given what Roethlisberger, who threw four interceptions Sunday night and has been horrible in 22 of the Steelers last 24 quarters.
It. Is. Over.
And if it isn’t then the Steelers organization isn’t who we think they are. The Steelers will never win another Super Bowl with Roethlisberger being their starting quarterback. This was his last hurrah, their last best chance and the Steelers were never in the game against a crippled Browns team.
When Roethlisberger’s Steelers lost to Tim Tebow in 2011, we said “no worries, he is only 29 and in his prime and he just took the team to three of the last six Super Bowls and won two of them, he will be fine. He is going to lead them to the promised land again.” That’s not the case now as he is over the hill and his salary cap number is humongous.
Roethlisberger, who is 3-7 in his last ten playoff games, is the greatest quarterback in Steelers history and a first ballot Hall of Fame player, but he is done. Let me be accurate — he may not actually be done, but his days as the Steelers quarterback need to be done.
I am not suggesting the Steelers in 2021 are better with Mason Rudolph than Ben Roethlisberger — though based solely on how the two guys performed against the Browns in back-to-back weeks there is an argument for that to be made.
Yes, if Roethlisberger comes back maybe the Steelers are a little better than if Rudolph plays, but they are no closer to being a legitimate Super Bowl contender and that’s all that should matter. They won’t start taking steps back to being a Super Bowl team until Roethlisberger — and his insane salary and salary cap hit — are gone. As long as he is the Steelers quarterback, they will be built around him and have an offense that makes absolutely no sense because it is what he wants.
Do you know the only game where the Steelers offense was creative, innovative and made the other team’s defense guess a little bit? Last week against the Browns. You know why? Rudolph started so the coaches used a lot of different formations and looks to try and help him, and even incorporated Josh Dobbs in some short yardage situations.
I get it, Roethlisberger is a Hall of Famer and if he still had Hall of Fame stuff the Steelers coaches would be correct to hand over the offense to him and let him run it as he sees fit. He isn’t 28, though, he is 38, coming off major elbow surgery and he can’t physically do the things he once could. He can’t scramble around and make schoolyard plays, he can’t throw deep with consistency and his accuracy isn’t what it once was.
Winning a few more games in 2021 shouldn’t be the goal. The goal should be to create the quickest path to Super Bowl contention and the best way to achieve that is to either encourage Roethlisberger to retire (like the organization did with Troy Polamalu) or trade him and either way, start to rebuild. Yes, the cap hit is in the neighborhood of $22 million if Roethlisberger doesn’t play but that is $19 million less than his salary cap hit if he does play.
The Steelers have big needs on the offensive line, at running back and could use some reinforcement on defense. They need to rebuild in a lot of areas and while they are doing that, there is no need to keep a 39-year-old quarterback around with a $41 million salary cap hit and who has a penchant for throwing interceptions around.
The Packers knew when it was time to move on from Brett Favre. The Colts knew when it was time to move on from Peyton Manning. And most recently the Chargers and Patriots knew when it was time to move on from Phil Rivers and Tom Brady. All of those organizations knew their Super Bowl runs with those Hall of Fame quarterbacks had come to a close and moved on in hopes of getting the rebuilding/reloading phases started.
They all stopped chasing ghosts and weren’t afraid to make bold moves for the future of their franchises.
The Steelers need to learn from that, stop ignoring reality and stop trying to convince themselves that “the old cowboy” has one last run in him. He doesn’t.
Roethlisberger may have some football left in him but the Steelers need to make it clear it won’t happen in black and gold. The Steelers need to begin to build their next great team and they will never be able to do that as long as they keep trying so hard to kiss the brass ring of a gimpy-armed quarterback whose time has passed.
Paul Zeise: pzeise@post-gazette.com or Twitter @paulzeise
First Published: January 11, 2021, 10:29 a.m.
