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It really won’t sink in that Ben Roethlisberger has retired until the 2022 NFL season kicks off and he is not on the Pittsburgh Steelers sideline. The 18-year veteran will be a first ballot Hall of Famer. While he has terrific statistics, Roethlisberger does not receive enough credit for setting a new and never before seen standard for quarterback play. As he celebrates his 40th birthday today, let’s take a deeper look into how Big Ben started a unique playing style for quarterbacks today to mirror.
It starts with his nickname. A 6’5″, 240-pound quarterback was near impossible to take down for the first half of his career. Former New England Patriots defensive lineman, Michael Bennett, said that tackling Roethlisberger was like trying to take down a truck. Duron Harmon, who once played for the Patriots, compared the situation to tackling an elephant. Terrence Brooks further proved their point. “When you get to him, you just gotta make sure you wrap him up and just hope the cavalry comes and finishes him off,” he said.
Marcus Spears told a story on the Dan Patrick Show recently about Nick Saban warning his team at LSU before playing
Miami (OH). Saban told the team that Roethlisberger was going to be a top pick and that he is bigger than they think. He also mentioned how hard it was going to be to take down the Redhawks quarterback. Roethlisberger didn’t invent this style in the NFL. He was playing like this for the entirety of his football career.
Not only was Roethlisberger impossible to take down, but his ability to extend plays was truly eye-opening throughout his career. Pairing an unwillingness to hit the turf with the determination to find an open receiver at some point down field was what Roethlisberger excelled at. We see current media rave about guys like Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen who scramble around in the pocket allowing time for a receiver to get open and then hitting said receiver. These are just two guys in today’s NFL, but these are the quarterbacks that organizations are looking for nowadays. There are countless highlight reels out there demonstrating how special Roethlisberger was. He had an unparalleled ability to play schoolyard football against the best defenders in the world.
His skills didn’t stop there. Roethlisberger had what, quite possibly, could be the best pump fake in NFL history. His massive hands allowed him to hold onto the ball and completely swindle defenders into thinking he was about to throw to a receiver. All while running around, escaping pressure, he would pump fake up to four times in just a matter of seconds. This is something he thrived at and it allowed receivers who were covered to suddenly appear wide open.
As he grew older and his body started to wear, he lost what he had been able to do earlier in his career. That does not mean, however, that he didn’t change the way many people looked at the quarterback position. A new generation of quarterback play launched as Roethlisberger’s backyard football play was found to be successful. It was almost like Brett Favre and John Elway had a baby and out came Big Ben modernizing their playing styles to fit today’s NFL.
We have seen quarterbacks escape the pocket and run around before Roethlisberger. We have seen guys that are incredibly tough to take down. Big Ben also didn’t invent the pump fake. But, pairing all three of these characteristics and abilities together made for a new style of NFL quarterback play. Roethlisberger was the first of his kind and revamped the most important position on the field.
Do you think that Roethlisberger left a big enough mark on football to revolutionize the quarterback position? Let us know in the comments section below!
#SteelerNation
Support SteelerNation by clicking here to read the story..
It starts with his nickname. A 6’5″, 240-pound quarterback was near impossible to take down for the first half of his career. Former New England Patriots defensive lineman, Michael Bennett, said that tackling Roethlisberger was like trying to take down a truck. Duron Harmon, who once played for the Patriots, compared the situation to tackling an elephant. Terrence Brooks further proved their point. “When you get to him, you just gotta make sure you wrap him up and just hope the cavalry comes and finishes him off,” he said.
Marcus Spears told a story on the Dan Patrick Show recently about Nick Saban warning his team at LSU before playing
Miami (OH). Saban told the team that Roethlisberger was going to be a top pick and that he is bigger than they think. He also mentioned how hard it was going to be to take down the Redhawks quarterback. Roethlisberger didn’t invent this style in the NFL. He was playing like this for the entirety of his football career.
Not only was Roethlisberger impossible to take down, but his ability to extend plays was truly eye-opening throughout his career. Pairing an unwillingness to hit the turf with the determination to find an open receiver at some point down field was what Roethlisberger excelled at. We see current media rave about guys like Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen who scramble around in the pocket allowing time for a receiver to get open and then hitting said receiver. These are just two guys in today’s NFL, but these are the quarterbacks that organizations are looking for nowadays. There are countless highlight reels out there demonstrating how special Roethlisberger was. He had an unparalleled ability to play schoolyard football against the best defenders in the world.
His skills didn’t stop there. Roethlisberger had what, quite possibly, could be the best pump fake in NFL history. His massive hands allowed him to hold onto the ball and completely swindle defenders into thinking he was about to throw to a receiver. All while running around, escaping pressure, he would pump fake up to four times in just a matter of seconds. This is something he thrived at and it allowed receivers who were covered to suddenly appear wide open.
As he grew older and his body started to wear, he lost what he had been able to do earlier in his career. That does not mean, however, that he didn’t change the way many people looked at the quarterback position. A new generation of quarterback play launched as Roethlisberger’s backyard football play was found to be successful. It was almost like Brett Favre and John Elway had a baby and out came Big Ben modernizing their playing styles to fit today’s NFL.
We have seen quarterbacks escape the pocket and run around before Roethlisberger. We have seen guys that are incredibly tough to take down. Big Ben also didn’t invent the pump fake. But, pairing all three of these characteristics and abilities together made for a new style of NFL quarterback play. Roethlisberger was the first of his kind and revamped the most important position on the field.
Do you think that Roethlisberger left a big enough mark on football to revolutionize the quarterback position? Let us know in the comments section below!
#SteelerNation
Support SteelerNation by clicking here to read the story..
