The temptation will be to play the hits when we explain what happened to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night. We’ll talk about Mike Tomlin’s coaching decisions or complain about the defensive injuries. Perhaps we’ll complain about the lack of an assertive running game or shoot the film with a ferocious shotgun that clicks into place seconds after Pittsburgh’s 48:37 loss to the Cleveland Browns, resulting in an instant seven-point deficit that the Steelers couldn’t afford.
If we’re honest, that loss was a story by Ben Roethlisberger. It’s a story about three interceptions in the first half that dug a monumental hole and a crime that continues to focus on an unrealistic quarterback workload rather than a mindset that crushes the souls of opponents at the best of times. If we can look past a bloated Sunday night stats sheet padded against one of the NFL’s worst secondaries, we can see what’s coming for a while. Either the Steelers will fundamentally change their offensive to match the sunset of Big Ben’s career, or they will grapple with what it takes to bring this team back to what it used to be: a powerful racing team balanced through a dominant defense and quarterback with the ability to break open games through chunk games rather than large volume passes.
There’s no shame in acknowledging something, by the way. Roethlisberger has had a brilliant career and is still able to bet big numbers when allowed to throw more than 40 times per game. But he’s not the same player as he used to be, and unless he realizes that transitioning into this off-season pushes off the inevitable change that only gets uglier the longer Pittsburgh waits.
Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger (7) sits on the bench next to the center of Maurkice Pouncey after losing 48-37 in an AFC wildcard playoff game against the Browns in Pittsburgh on Sunday. (AP Photo / Don Wright)
It’s time to make the change. Not only because Roethlisberger hit an unsustainable salary cap of $ 41.25 million next season, but also because you don’t have to guess what’s in store for your game. The drop is steep. And it comes. If you need more evidence, consider Roethlisberger’s elbow surgery last season, then watch his accuracy as he tries to propel the ball outside of hashmarks or deep field.
The story goes on
As a league source watching the game, she wrote on Sunday night, “He looks like Philip Rivers out there.”
That’s not a flattering comparison in 2020. And if the Steelers expect things to get better from here, that would be tantamount to a roster mistake, especially if this is going to be a lucrative off-season for a quarterback addition. A variety of younger bridge veterans will be available that could keep the Steelers competing for the next season and beyond. And not just a roll of the dice for someone like Sam Darnold of the New York Jets or Carson Wentz of the Philadelphia Eagles. Realistically, the Steelers wouldn’t have to look any further than Detroit’s Matthew Stafford, who is expected to be commercially available and would be an upgrade to keep Pittsburgh in Super Bowl competition for the next several years. While the Steelers prefer a shorter bridge tie than Stafford, there is also Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons who seems to have a few prime years left in the tank.
Pittsburgh can’t sit on its hands and hope that Roethlisberger’s hit stats in 2020 are a sign of a renaissance. This isn’t a Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, or Drew Brees situation. All three of these quarterbacks spent most of their 30s constantly tweaking their diet and physique during the off-season to keep their prime well into their 40s. Roethlisberger? He creates a great story when he shows up to camp with his weight down. It’s a deviation in its history, not the norm. Expecting that to suddenly change when he’s already had major elbow surgery and turns 39 in March is a huge challenge. Given the fulcrum of the franchise, the risk is even greater.
None of this means removing responsibility for the end of this season from Tomlin or the coaching staff. Tomlin did his part of the game’s mistakes, including the questionable punt call against the Browns. And it’s puzzling why he was ready and offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner had this turned into a glorified West Coast crime by a power running team earlier in the season that inflated Roethlisberger’s numbers on the track. A likely reason for this is the stress Roesthlisberger’s arm could withstand – with the faster, shorter passing game that takes some of the torque off his elbow while maintaining the number of hits it would be exposed to. If that is the case, it speaks for what is in store for the Steelers. Will this be a higher volume, shorter pass team like the New Orleans Saints with Brees? Or is it looking for a means of leaning back into the violent, powerful identity that has defined the franchise for the past decade?
Of course it is possible that nobody understands all of this better than Roethlisberger. Nobody knows better than him where he is for his throwing ability and general health. That could be why he didn’t dive into that snapshot that went over his head during the first scrimmage game when it looked like he had a chance to hit the ball at the goal line. Or why he sat on the bench after the defeat and lingered with tears in his eyes in a scene that suggested he had something bigger on his mind than a disappointing first-round defeat.
The scene said, “He’s done.” Maybe that’s what develops in the days to come. But there was a time when Brees also thought he was done after last season’s early playoffs, and he eventually returned for 2020. Perhaps Roethlisberger is also taking the same last breath that enables the team to do a business decision about its money. Salary would indeed be a problem considering this is not the same situation Brees returned to with the Saints. There is no Alvin Kamara in the background. No recipient on the roster is as talented as Michael Thomas. And Fichtner is not the offensive ghost of Sean Payton, who is constantly working on and adjusting his team’s schema to fix the shortcomings we found in Brees’ game.
No, Pittsburgh is in a different situation. The team either relies on this change of identity for crimes that appear necessary to make Roethlisberger a viable option for another season, or it looks for an external answer. The franchise has been avoiding this decision for several years and is finding no natural replacement for the baton. And now it will pay off either to extend another year and revise Roethlisberger’s contract, or to search a large number of available veterans. There is no young option on the roster so there is no clear choice.
If Roethlisberger doesn’t make the tough choice for Pittsburgh, the Steelers will have to do the tough and do it for themselves. The time has come and it no longer belongs to Big Ben.
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