Ben Roethlisberger gave the Pittsburgh Steelers nearly 20 years of fantastic quarterback play. Thanks to Roethlisberger, the Steelers were able to capture two more Super Bowls. He led them to their most successful stretch since the 1970s. However, since he retired after the 2021 season, Pittsburgh has struggled to find his successor. At the moment, they’re stuck in an ugly position under center. Former NFL running back LeSean McCoy thinks Roethlisberger is to blame for the Steelers’ issues.
“You know whose fault it is?” McCoy asked Wednesday on FS1’s The Facility. “Big Ben’s fault. Let me take you back to Big Ben. First of all, Big Ben was done a long time ago before he was done. I’m looking like, ‘Wow, you’re gonna let him keep messing up the whole team.’
“The problem was, when Big Ben was playing bad, in an interview, he’d say, ‘I just don’t really have it anymore.’ When a player says that, the GM, head coach, the ownership, ‘We’ve got to do something else. We’ve got to get a backup plan.’ You know what they did? They didn’t because when they were trying to draft somebody, he got upset about it.”
During the last few years of his career, it was clear that Roethlisberger wasn’t the same player that he used to be. Father Time had caught up to him. Also, Roethlisberger suffered a major elbow injury in 2019 that caused him to miss almost the entire season.
In his final two seasons after that, Roethlisberger’s play had clearly declined. However, before that injury, Roethlisberger had hinted a few times that he was unsure if he could still play at the same level. The comment McCoy is referencing came after the Steelers’ loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars during the 2017 season.
Afterwards, Ben Roethlisberger said, "Maybe I don't have it anymore." Asked: What makes you say that? Says, "I'm not playing well enough." https://t.co/w1IcjgnYKY
— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) October 8, 2017
The Steelers clearly took Roethlisberger’s words seriously because in the following draft they selected Mason Rudolph in the third round. While that isn’t a huge investment in a quarterback, it showed that the Steelers were trying to look ahead to a future without Roethlisberger.
It didn’t seem like Roethlisberger was thrilled that the Steelers were looking to find his successor while he was still playing. However, it’s unclear if he was upset or complained to the team about it.
Unfortunately, Rudolph didn’t pan out, and Pittsburgh didn’t really make any other efforts to find Roethlisberger’s successor while he was playing. However, it’s probably unfair to blame Roethlisberger for those issues. The Steelers could’ve drafted a quarterback whenever they wanted. Instead, they wanted to continue to compete for a Super Bowl.
Also, Roethlisberger has been retired for three seasons. How can he be to blame for the Steelers’ inability to find their next franchise quarterback since then? Pittsburgh drafted Kenny Pickett in their first offseason after Roethlisberger’s retirement, and that was a massive miss.
Since then, they’ve tried to put a Band-Aid on the position. The Steelers want to compete for a Super Bowl, so they’re unwilling to go through a complete reset. That’s part of the reason why they didn’t draft a quarterback high during Roethlisberger’s last few years.
They wanted to wring out that rag for all it was worth while Roethlisberger was playing. As a result, they’ve spent the past few years floundering under center. That’s not Roethlisberger’s fault, though. He wasn’t drafting players. The organization as a whole is to blame for its mistakes at quarterback.
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