It's been surprising to me how little fondness there is for Ben Roethlisberger in early rankings and drafts. He finishes outside the top 15 in the Experts Poll, and wasn't particularly coveted in either of our draft or auction competitions.
Roethlisberger is coming off elbow surgery and is 38 years old, so to some extent I get it. There's risk in assuming he'll be his normal self on the field. But if he is, he's been a pretty productive quarterback.
In 2018, he was the 2nd-best fantasy quarterback. That was his third top-1o finish in his last five years. He ranked in the top 20 his two other seasons since 2014.
Table shows all top 10-performing quarterbacks since 2014, sorted by fantasy points.
TOP-10 FANTASY QUARTERBACKS, 2014-PRESENT | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Player | PaYds | TD | RuYds | TD | FF | Rk |
2018 | Patrick Mahomes | 5097 | 50 | 272 | 2 | 496.1 | 1 |
2019 | Lamar Jackson | 3127 | 36 | 1206 | 7 | 463.0 | 1 |
2015 | Cam Newton | 3837 | 35 | 636 | 10 | 455.5 | 1 |
2016 | Aaron Rodgers | 4428 | 40 | 369 | 4 | 446.3 | 1 |
2014 | Andrew Luck | 4761 | 40 | 273 | 3 | 443.4 | 1 |
2018 | Ben Roethlisberger | 5129 | 34 | 98 | 3 | 429.2 | 2 |
2018 | Matt Ryan | 4924 | 35 | 125 | 3 | 428.2 | 3 |
2019 | Jameis Winston | 5109 | 33 | 250 | 1 | 426.5 | 2 |
2016 | Drew Brees | 5208 | 37 | 20 | 2 | 422.4 | 2 |
2017 | Russell Wilson | 3983 | 34 | 586 | 3 | 415.8 | 1 |
2016 | Matt Ryan | 4944 | 38 | 117 | 0 | 414.9 | 3 |
2019 | Dak Prescott | 4902 | 30 | 277 | 3 | 412.8 | 3 |
2014 | Aaron Rodgers | 4381 | 38 | 269 | 2 | 412.0 | 2 |
2015 | Tom Brady | 4770 | 36 | 53 | 3 | 410.4 | 2 |
2015 | Blake Bortles | 4428 | 35 | 310 | 2 | 406.4 | 3 |
2018 | Andrew Luck | 4593 | 39 | 148 | 0 | 405.9 | 4 |
2015 | Russell Wilson | 4024 | 34 | 553 | 1 | 398.5 | 4 |
2018 | Deshaun Watson | 4165 | 26 | 551 | 5 | 397.4 | 5 |
2018 | Jared Goff | 4688 | 32 | 108 | 2 | 397.2 | 6 |
2014 | Peyton Manning | 4727 | 39 | -24 | 0 | 394.0 | 3 |
2014 | Drew Brees | 4952 | 33 | 68 | 1 | 393.5 | 4 |
2019 | Deshaun Watson | 3852 | 26 | 413 | 7 | 389.5 | 4 |
2016 | Andrew Luck | 4240 | 31 | 341 | 2 | 386.1 | 4 |
2019 | Russell Wilson | 4110 | 31 | 342 | 3 | 383.7 | 5 |
2014 | Ben Roethlisberger | 4952 | 32 | 27 | 0 | 383.7 | 5 |
2015 | Carson Palmer | 4671 | 35 | 24 | 1 | 382.0 | 5 |
2016 | Kirk Cousins | 4917 | 25 | 96 | 4 | 379.5 | 5 |
2014 | Russell Wilson | 3475 | 20 | 849 | 6 | 379.4 | 6 |
2015 | Drew Brees | 4870 | 32 | 14 | 1 | 378.9 | 6 |
2015 | Eli Manning | 4432 | 35 | 61 | 0 | 367.7 | 7 |
2018 | Aaron Rodgers | 4442 | 25 | 269 | 2 | 367.0 | 7 |
2017 | Cam Newton | 3302 | 22 | 754 | 6 | 366.5 | 2 |
2017 | Tom Brady | 4577 | 32 | 28 | 0 | 363.7 | 3 |
2015 | Aaron Rodgers | 3821 | 31 | 344 | 1 | 363.5 | 8 |
2015 | Matthew Stafford | 4262 | 32 | 159 | 1 | 363.4 | 9 |
2014 | Matt Ryan | 4694 | 28 | 145 | 0 | 363.2 | 7 |
2015 | Kirk Cousins | 4166 | 29 | 48 | 5 | 363.1 | 10 |
2018 | Kirk Cousins | 4298 | 30 | 123 | 1 | 360.1 | 8 |
2018 | Drew Brees | 3992 | 32 | 22 | 4 | 356.9 | 9 |
2016 | Philip Rivers | 4386 | 33 | 35 | 0 | 354.8 | 6 |
2017 | Kirk Cousins | 4093 | 27 | 179 | 4 | 354.6 | 4 |
2016 | Blake Bortles | 3905 | 23 | 359 | 3 | 354.2 | 7 |
2018 | Philip Rivers | 4308 | 32 | 7 | 0 | 354.1 | 10 |
2017 | Matthew Stafford | 4446 | 29 | 98 | 0 | 352.1 | 5 |
2019 | Kyler Murray | 3722 | 20 | 544 | 4 | 350.5 | 6 |
2019 | Matt Ryan | 4466 | 26 | 147 | 1 | 350.0 | 7 |
2014 | Eli Manning | 4410 | 30 | 31 | 1 | 349.6 | 8 |
2014 | Philip Rivers | 4286 | 31 | 102 | 0 | 348.5 | 9 |
2014 | Ryan Tannehill | 4045 | 27 | 311 | 1 | 348.0 | 10 |
2017 | Alex Smith | 4042 | 26 | 355 | 1 | 347.6 | 6 |
2016 | Matthew Stafford | 4327 | 24 | 207 | 2 | 347.1 | 8 |
2019 | Josh Allen | 3089 | 20 | 510 | 9 | 345.5 | 8 |
2016 | Jameis Winston | 4090 | 28 | 165 | 1 | 345.0 | 9 |
2019 | Carson Wentz | 4039 | 27 | 243 | 1 | 344.3 | 9 |
2019 | Patrick Mahomes | 4031 | 26 | 218 | 2 | 341.4 | 10 |
2016 | Dak Prescott | 3667 | 23 | 282 | 6 | 339.6 | 10 |
2017 | Philip Rivers | 4515 | 28 | -2 | 0 | 337.6 | 7 |
2017 | Carson Wentz | 3296 | 33 | 299 | 0 | 334.7 | 8 |
2017 | Ben Roethlisberger | 4251 | 28 | 47 | 0 | 333.3 | 9 |
2017 | Dak Prescott | 3324 | 22 | 357 | 6 | 325.9 | 10 |
Yesterday Roethlisberger himself posted a video on Twitter, showing him completing passes to JuJu Smith-Schuster, James Conner and Ryan Switzer. He had a Grizzly Adams beard and haircut initially, but got it all shaved off once he was comfortable with what he can throw.
We'll see, but I think you could do worse than invest in Roethlisberger and the Steelers passing game this season. Most everyone will come at a discount.
--Andy Richardson