Is Ben Roethlisberger an elite quarterback? And by elite, I mean in the fantasy sense. Is he in the same neighborhood, statistically, as anybody short of Andrew Luck and Aaron Rodgers. I’m not sure that he is.
In the middle of last year, recall, he had that insane pair of games, where he threw 6 TDs against the Colts, then came back the next week and put up 6 TDs against the Ravens. Unprecedented.
At that point, I made the decision that this guy really was something – that he was ready to move up into that Brees-Manning-Brady company. Maybe replace those guys, given their ages.
But if you’re going to be real butt-kicker, you’ve got to crank out multiple touchdowns week after week, and in this regard, Roethlisberger hasn’t quite done it.
He puts up plenty of yards. Look at his body of work and you see lots of games with over 300 yards.
But he has not been quite good enough at finishing drives with touchdowns.
I know this first hand, having used him myself in a couple of key playoff games late last year against Atlanta and Kansas City (he threw only one touchdown in those eight quarters).
At this point, he doesn’t look like a guy with much of a chance of throwing 35 touchdowns (and that’s kind of what you need now, if you want to elevate above the crowd of guys who’ll throw 27-30).
When he had the two big games last year, he was catching those defenses at the perfect time, and he was getting them both at home. The Colts lost Vontae Davis, who’s one of the game’s very best corners. And the Ravens had just lost Jimmy Smith, their top corner. So things were really aligned for him.
In his last nine games, Roethlisberger has put up plenty of yards but has been pretty average in terms of scoring – 13 TDs in nine games. In only three of his last nine has he thrown more than one touchdown.
| BIG BEN'S LAST NINE GAMES | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Yards | TD | Int |
| at NYJ | 343 | 1 | 2 |
| at Tenn. | 207 | 1 | 1 |
| N.O. | 435 | 2 | 2 |
| at Cin. | 350 | 3 | 0 |
| at Atl. | 360 | 0 | 0 |
| K.C. | 220 | 1 | 0 |
| Cin. | 317 | 2 | 1 |
| Balt. | 334 | 1 | 2 |
| at N.E. | 351 | 1 | 1 |
—Ian Allan