Former NFL All-Pro running back LeSean McCoy believes Ben Roethlisberger is to blame for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ current quarterback situation.
McCoy cites Roethlisberger’s lack of willingness to let the team draft his replacement, leaving the Steelers saddled with a huge need after his retirement following the 2021 season.
“You know whose fault it is? Big Ben’s fault,” McCoy said. “Let me take you back to Big Ben. First of all, Big Ben was done a long time 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 badly, in an interview, he said, ‘I don’t really have it anymore,’ and when a player says that, the GM, coach, ownership should go, ‘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 someone, he got upset.”
Roethlisberger suffered a major elbow injury in 2019, precipitating his game’s fall from the usual standard he once had in the prime of his career. However, McCoy refers to the quote that occurred in 2017 after they lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Quotes like that led to Roethlisberger floating with retirement a few times, but he did not retire until after the 2021 season. The Steelers even drafted Mason Rudolph in the third round the offseason after Roethlisberger made those comments.
Either way, Roethlisberger has been retired for three seasons, and the Steelers have not found a quarterback. Some of Roethlisberger’s actions might have foiled their succession plan, but their lack of success since then in finding their guy is not on him.