The NFL has made it official: future Hall of Famer Ben Rothlisberger has retired from football. He exited the league after winning rookie of the year in 2004 and winning the Super Bowl in both 2006 and 2009. Rothlisberger’s 246 games started is the third most of all-time, and to go along with that, he is currently 5th all-time in career passing yards. Two things that have really defined him as a player are his elite pump faking ability, and how tough it is for defenders to bring him down. He even pump-faked on what many consider to be the defining play of his career. Late in the 4th quarter of Super Bowl XLIII, Rothlisberger sold an approaching defensive lineman with his trademark pump fake and made an amazing throw through three defenders to Santonio Holmes in the back of the end zone. It was an incredible play and the obvious best play of that super bowl. While he did not win Super Bowl MVP, this was regarded by many as the play of the year and shaped his career going forward.
This is clearly the end of an era in Pittsburgh as they have not gone into a season without “Big Ben” as their starting quarterback since 2004. The debate going on in their front office right now is whether to acquire a bridge quarterback to get them to a better draft class, pick a quarterback in this year’s draft, or make a big move to get an established star to be their quarterback for the next few years. The general consensus around the league is that Mason Rudolph will be the Steelers’ starter next season, but that obviously would not be the best-case scenario. The Steelers aren’t in a great position with their salary cap room, but they aren’t in an awful one. Right now they are estimated to have about 42 million dollars in cap space next season, easily enough to pay Mason Rudolph or a rookie quarterback, but perhaps not enough to pay a quarterback like Jimmy Garoppolo.
If there is one possibility to rule out right now, it would be seeing a star quarterback like Russell Wilson or Aaron Rodgers in black and gold next season. Bringing in that high profile of a player and laying out the trade value that they definitely would have to to get one of those quarterbacks is just not the kind of thing the Steelers do. They obviously haven’t been in a position to make a move like that at quarterback for a long time, but they haven’t made a huge splash at any other positions either. Their Minkah Fitzpatrick acquisition is the only recent move possible to point to, but that really wasn’t that big of a deal as the only super valuable asset they gave up was a first-round draft pick.
It seems more likely that the Steelers would have Mason Rudolph under center in week one. He certainly is not the long-term answer with his 16-11 career touchdown to interception ratio, he would just help them to get to a quarterback draft class headlined by Bryce Young and CJ Stroud. The possibility of Kenny Pickett, Matt Corral, or Malik Willis being a Steeler next season can never be ruled out, but it seems unlikely.
While a down year can be expected for the Steelers, they are not in rebuild mode with young stars such as Najee Harris and Minkah Fitzpatrick on both sides of the ball. A new young and mobile franchise quarterback may be exactly what they need to get over the hump and back into Super Bowl contention.
Image Source: USA Today