Since being drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2004 NFL Draft, Ben Roethlisberger has led the Steelers to prominence in the AFC and made them legitimate Super Bowl contenders. Many different faces and personalities continue to enter the Steel City, but #7 has been the one constant throughout.
He won a Super Bowl in only his second season and has set many Steelers passing records since, including most yards and touchdowns all-time. Roethlisberger has also had his share of ups and downs, but his play has remained steady. Now entering his age-37 season, “Big Ben” is coming off his best statistical year and it appears the clock has rolled back to an early version of himself.
Ben the savior
Roethlisberger was the third quarterback taken in the 2004 NFL Draft behind both Eli Manning and Phillip Rivers. All three have had tremendous success, and that draft has been the benchmark for great quarterback draft classes ever since. Both Manning and Roethlisberger have won Super Bowls, while Rivers is still searching for his first.
When Ben was drafted in Pittsburgh, however, there was already an established veteran in Tommy Maddox. The incumbent starter Maddox was a fan favorite for the Steelers, but Ben was viewed as the future star at quarterback out of Miami University of Ohio. Pittsburgh was coming off of a disappointing 6-10 campaign, and Roethlisberger was selected to succeed Maddox. The previous season, Maddox led Pittsburgh to a successful 10-5-1 campaign but ended in defeat to the Tennessee Titans in the Divisional Round of the AFC Playoffs.
The original plan was to sit Big Ben during his rookie season. However, that all changed when Maddox suffered an elbow injury in Week 2 of the 2004 season. Roethlisberger was suddenly thrust into his first NFL game action, and he never looked back. From that point on, Roethlisberger never ceded the job back to Maddox and went on to lead the Steelers to an NFL best record of 15-1 and a trip to the NFL Playoffs. The team would later fall to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game. But it was Ben’s heroism and winning ways that would endear him to Pittsburgh fans and deem him a savior in Pittsburgh early on in his career.
Killer B’s and the end of an era
Roethlisberger began his career alongside future Hall of Famers in running back Jerome Bettis and star receiver Hines Ward. One would argue that no group could ever match this level of talent that he started his career with. This trio led the team to two playoff appearances and a Super Bowl win in 2006 during Roethlisberger’s first two years as the starter. He won another Super Bowl in 2008 alongside Ward and the replacement for Bettis in Willie Parker. He also played alongside other great players such as Santonio Holmes, Mike Wallace, and Rashard Mendenhall.
In 2010, the Steelers drafted Central Michigan receiver Antonio Brown in the sixth round of the NFL Draft. Brown spent his rookie season as a depth piece behind Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes but made some splash plays as a returner. He would take over a more significant role in 2011 and would be named the team MVP following his first 1,000-yard season as a receiver. Following Hines Ward’s retirement in 2012, Brown would take over as Ben’s primary target. The fiery player would go on to create plenty of controversy in Pittsburgh, as well as become an All-Pro and 7-time Pro Bowler.
In 2013, the team drafted Michigan State running back Le’Veon Bell in the 2nd round of the NFL Draft. Bell took over as the starter during his rookie year and flourished, just as his quarterback Roethlisberger did. His first season yielded mixed results, but he was able to rush for over 800 yards and eight scores. It was in Bell’s second season that the team realized they had found something special. Bell managed over 2,000 total yards and 11 more touchdowns as he changed his running style and became arguably the best back in football.
This trio became the standard for excellence and production in the AFC, eventually earning the nickname of the new “Killer B’s.” Roethlisberger has done a great job of managing different personalities during his time in Pittsburgh, but even this group appeared to be too much for the veteran to handle. In more recent years, Bell and Brown had clashed with management as well as Big Ben, and thus the trio has been separated. Antonio was traded to the Oakland Raiders before the 2019 NFL Draft, while Bell signed with the New York Jets during free agency.
Out with the old, in with the new
For all the success the “Killer B’s” enjoyed in Pittsburgh, they never won a Super Bowl together. Furthermore, while playing together, the trio never even beat the New England Patriots. Bell endured his struggles against the Patriots, as he failed to score a single touchdown or rush for 100 yards in their first three meetings. It was rookie Jaylen Samuels who engineered a 100-yard performance and helped the team beat the Patriots in 2018. Antonio Brown found his own measure of success in that game as he scored on a 17-yard touchdown pass. That connection would prove to be the difference.
While Samuels was the star of that game, it was 2018 starter James Conner who enjoyed a monster year in the absence of Bell. In his first season as the starting back, Conner contributed over 1,400 total yards and 13 touchdowns. He appears to be the next star back in Pittsburgh and kept the train moving even without Bell in the lineup. Bell proved to be a special all-around back during his time in the Steel City, but Conner more than held his own as the starter.
Antonio Brown has long been Roethlisberger’s favorite target. However, the momentum appeared to swing in the direction of young JuJu Smith-Schuster in 2018. In only his second season out of USC, JuJu captivated Big Ben and Steelers’ fans alike on his way to a Pro Bowl season. He consistently made tough catches and proved to be a big, reliable target for Roethlisberger. As mentioned in my JuJu piece last month, Smith-Schuster is ready to take the league by storm. And he seems to have prolonged Big Ben’s career in the process.
Cancel the retirement party
With these tremendous new weapons in tow, Roethlisberger enjoyed a career year and looked revived entirely last season. In fact, since his retirement talk following a loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2017, few quarterbacks have enjoyed more statistical success. He led the league in passing over the past two seasons with 9,380 total yards. And in 2018, Ben threw for the most yards in his career with a league-high 5,129 yards.
Roethlisberger also passed for 34 touchdowns and added three on the ground, which matched a career-best. While he may not have his long-time number one receiver, he does have a plethora of young receiving options at his disposal. JuJu Smith-Schuster is a budding star, and guys like James Washington, Donte Moncrief, Diontae Johnson, and Vance McDonald have plenty to offer in the upside department.
If you combine that receiving core with the talented backfield trio of Conner, Samuels and 2019 draft pick Benny Snell, there’s no secret as to why Ben is feeling so good as he heads into his 16th season. He mentioned in a recent interview with the Steelers team site that it would be a challenge with all the new faces, but the team is still looking to compete for a championship. And with the way things are looking, time has appeared to slow down for the Steelers’ quarterback as he looks to bring a seventh Lombardi Trophy back to Pittsburgh.
Scott Gorman is a writer for PFN covering the Pittsburgh Steelers. You can follow him @sgormanPFN on Twitter!