Steelers Big Ben: Is the Best Yet To Come?

Steelers GM Kevin Colbert believes that Roethlisberger is a QB who is getting better with age. Big Ben is certainly tough, but what contract is realistic?

Colbert has acknowledged that the Steelers are in contract talks with Roethlisberger according to ESPN’s Scott Brown.  This is good news to Steeler Nation, but I don’t think there was much doubt that the Steelers would do all they could to keep him and pay him what he is worth.

I am sure there are still the rumors of Ben hooking back up with Bruce Arians, but I just can’t see that happening unless the contracts talks go in a horribly bad direction.

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Colbert was surprisingly playing up Ben’s talents:

"I really think Ben is going to be a better quarterback down the road than he is at this point,” Colbert said Tuesday. “Ben is a franchise quarterback that’s getting better with age.”"

I think Roethlisberger was phenomenal last year and I think it was because he was finally feeling healthy and getting comfortable with Todd Haley’s system.

However, age gets us all and it gets people whose bodies take a lot of physical punishment even sooner.  So, I have to wonder.  Is the best really yet to come?  Is this a gamble that could pan out horribly for the Steelers?

First off, age makes the players more prone to a long-lasting injury, but quarterbacks of any age can be out for a season in a blink of an eye.  It’s a tough business.

Roethlisberger absolutely deserves to get paid.  However, I wonder if a long-term contract is realistic.  Perhaps the Steelers will protect themselves with a few well-phrased stipulations about injury and bonuses.  That’s yet to be seen.

I want to see Big Ben with the Steelers for a few more years, but I also want to know that the Steelers are developing the next generation behind him.  I think that is just as important.

NFL teams should not be doing such a poor job of planning for a back up, but they all do.  It’s the way it is done.  Injury to a QB usually tanks the season.

Roethlisberger is the here and now.  What is unknown is if the best is truly yet to come.  The Steelers would be wise to have both tracks going.  What do you think Steeler Nation?

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