NFL Top 10 Series: Quarterbacks - #5

Welcome one and all to the much talked about and much anticipated (maybe not so much) debut of the NFL Top 10 Series. We’ve gone through the motions since the middle of the month of April with honorable mentions posts, which if you’re reading this post right now you have probably read through most if not all of them. So once again, thank you for the page views. It is appreciated. Five down, and five more to go. What a road it’s been eh? Sorry for the long wait. Laziness is a pain in my rear end. Anyways, we’re going to be discussing the final member of the famed 2004 QB class today. Yeah, I’m giving it away now. So what? It’s not as if you can’t guess the Top 5 from here on out… or can you?

Quarterback #5 – Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers

Say what you want about him as a person, but few bad things can be said about Ben Roethlisberger, the player.

Pittsburgh Steeler football isn’t exactly tailor made for the quarterback. Never was before Ben Roethlisberger stepped onto the scene. Sure, Terry Bradshaw was good enough for them in the 70’s and yes, he’s a Hall of Famer. The consensus from people though is that he’s a tad bit overrated, and the real reason that the Steelers were as good as they were was the “Steel Curtain” defense.

For the last couple of years, all that has changed, and it’s all thanks to #7.

Ben Roethlisberger’s journey to this spot has been a bit of a bumpy one. That might be an understatement. His rookie year was spectacular, helping the Steelers get to 15-1, before being unceremoniously bounced by the eventual Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots. The next year, the Steelers bounced back and were Super Bowl Champions. The problem was: Ben Roethlisberger’s performance was one of the worst, in fact it probably was the worst performance by a Super Bowl winning quarterback ever.

And that’s totaling in, at the time, 39 previous games that saw quarterbacks from Roger Staubach and Joe Montana to the likes of Steve Grogan and Craig Morton. A couple off offseason incidents later, Ben was a bit of a ticking time bomb that Pittsburgh nearly got rid of. Of course, between that time period, Ben once again strutted his stuff on the big stage, this time bouncing back with a great performance in Super Bowl XLIII, including his memorable game-winning drive and game-winning pass to Santonio Holmes in the corner of the end zone.

Since then it seems like the narrative on Ben has completely changed. 2009 saw one of his best seasons as a Pittsburgh Steeler, throwing for 4,328 yards in just 15 games, throwing for 26 TD and 12 INT. His best season arguably came in 2007, where despite his miniscule 3,154 yards thrown, he found the end zone 32 times and was only picked off 11 times. Last season, Ben performed very well, throwing for over 4,000 (4,007) yards again, throwing for 21 touchdowns and only 14 interceptions.

There is a big double-edged sword that needs to be discussed though. That’s the fact that Ben Roethlisberger spends a lot of time out of the pocket. While his abilities to scramble around and make plays are second to none, he does take a lot of sacks. Out of 185 times that Ben was pressured last year he was sacked 21.6% of the time. However even with that said, at least in 2011, he is one of the best under pressure too. Ben’s 6:2 TD:INT ratio was sixth best in 2011, his 54.8 completion % was fourth best in the league, and he was ranked as the tenth best quarterback under pressure by Pro Football Focus (even if it was at a discouraging -3.6).

Ben Roethlisberger may never put up the flashy, gaudy numbers that some quarterbacks will. He for sure never will be an endorser for products or brands, especially with his almost terrible PR. The fact of the matter is though: Ben Roethilsberger is a very, very good quarterback in the NFL and you’d be hard pressed to find many players like him. He’s not your conventional pocket passer, but he gets things done when he moves out of the pocket and to me, that’s something unique about him and something that should be taken into account. I expect big things from Big Ben this upcoming season and for him to continue to define his legacy as one of the best quarterbacks of this era and a soon-to-be Hall of Fame quarterback.