Steelers Player Spotlight: Landry Jones

With Ben Roethlisberger now injured, the Pittsburgh Steelers turn to backup quarterback Landry Jones to take the helm and keep the Steelers afloat in a competitive AFC.

Ben Roethlisberger is one of, if not the most important player for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He is beloved by the fans and has the respect of almost anyone who has ever gone up against him. He has consistently produced for the Steelers and holds basically every record there is for a quarterback to hold on the team. He has all but secured himself a bust in Canton following his retirement, and five weeks into the year, he was potentially the frontrunner for MVP.

So when he went down with a torn meniscus in Week 6 against the Dolphins, it was so incredibly disappointing, but unfortunately, all too familiar. Roethlisberger is one of the toughest players in the league, but he also does get hurt a lot. Every time he takes a sack, every fan holds their breath for a moment as they wait for him to get up.

When Roethlisberger doesn’t get up, it means one thing; It’s Landry Jones time. When Landry Jones was drafted in the fourth round of the 2013 NFL Draft, everyone looked at him as the heir to the throne. Once Ben retired, Jones was next in line. If you said to any fan today that Jones was going to replace Roethlisberger when he retired, they would probably smash their television through the wall.

Let’s just say that Landry Jones has had an interesting career in Pittsburgh so far. People have to understand that while he is a four-year veteran, he hasn’t had very much experience, in actual games, at all. He has only two starts to his name, and it was just a year ago that fans were praising him for triumphantly beating the powerhouse Cardinals.

Unfortunately, he followed up that performance with a loss to the Chiefs, tossing just one touchdown to two interceptions. People like to refer to the fact that he threw 3 touchdowns and 4 interceptions on the season, but the 2 interceptions against the  Seahawks were in garbage time, and he was simply tossing them deep in hopes of keeping Pittsburgh alive. That wasn’t entirely his fault.

Since what he displayed against the Cardinals, it’s been entirely downhill. He shuffled onto the field a few times in relief of a sore Roethlisberger throughout the 2015 season, but it was when Roethlisberger went down in the playoffs against the Bengals that got fans riled up.

Jones waltzed into the game and basically threw the game away. He struggled to get the ball moving, at all, and the team was forced to punt the ball on his first drive. When he entered the game, the Steelers were winning 15-0, and after throwing an interception to Burfict in the waning minutes, all seemed lost with a 17-15 score.

Luckily for Pittsburgh, Ben Roethlisberger came back in the final minute to lead the game-winning drive with torn ligaments in his shoulder. Jones received plenty of criticism for not being able to perform better than a quarterback who could barely throw the ball, and it was pretty reasonable to criticize him for this.

Since then, Jones has received very little love from Steeler Nation. Even analysts across the league have said that the Roethlisberger to Jones production drop off may be one of the worst in the league. Jones and Martavis Bryant formed a bond of some sorts last year, but the 4th year quarterback won’t have the luxury of passing to him this year. In his one attempt at passing this year against the Dolphins, he threw a pretty awful pass off his backfoot that almost resulted in an interception, but we won’t stickle him for that one.

Pittsburgh is still on top of the AFC North at the moment, but with Roethlisberger out for 2-6 weeks, anything can happen. It’ll be up to Jones to step in and get the job done. If the Steelers can muster a couple of wins without Roethlisberger, it should be enough to keep the team afloat, but with the schedule of Patriots, Ravens, and Cowboys as the next three matchups, it won’t be easy.

Next: Roethlisberger out 4-6 weeks

This could be the last chance for Jones to prove his worth to Pittsburgh. He has an arsenal of weapons to work with, so it’ll be up to him to make use of them. Just sit back, take a deep breath, and let Landry Jones give it a shot. As Jones said himself and the players have reiterated, “Don’t panic.”