Steelers: Art Rooney II is delusional about Ben Roethlisberger

Art Rooney II thinks Ben Roethlisberger can still sling it with the best of them.

This isn’t to take a shot at the Hall-of-Fame career of the 38-year-old quarterback Roethlisberger. He’s accomplished more in this league than most quarterbacks could dream of. But at this stage of his career, Roethlisberger has proven himself to be little more than an above-average, but not Super Bowl caliber signal caller. There’s nothing wrong with that, except the Steelers don’t have a Super Bowl roster around him.

Steelers president Rooney II still believes Roethlisberger is of that upper echelon of quarterbacks, however, and that his arm strength is elite.

“We think Ben played at a high level last year…His arm, I would say, is as strong or almost as strong as ever, so I think he’s certainly capable of getting the job done,” Rooney II said, per Ian Rapoport.

Ben Roethlisberger’s arm strength is a major question moving forward

Roethlisberger is only a year removed from significant elbow surgery. Early in the 2020 season, he showed some rust, but eventually balled out in a big way thanks to Randy Fichtner’s short passing attack. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, Fichtner struggled at making any sort of adjustment to that scheme after the Steelers’ 11-0 start. The Steelers hit a snag, and so did Roethlisberger, looking remarkably human in the process.

With a new offensive coordinator in tow, it remains to be seen if Roethlisberger can revive some of that early-season magic. He is no longer the quarterback who led the Steelers to the Super Bowl three times, winning the big game twice.

Kevin Colbert has a lot of work to do this offseason, starting with restructuring Roethlisberger’s contract. Once that is done, he can worry about surrounding an aging legend with the talent necessary for one last run.