2018 Pittsburgh Steelers positional review: QB, RB and WR
The 2018 Pittsburgh Steelers’ season was a tumultuous and disappointing one. There were some bright spots and low spots and we are here to review and give an outlook moving forward into 2019.
The Pittsburgh Steelers at one point in 2018 were riding a six game winning streak and sitting at 7-2-1. It all came crashing down as they finished the season just 2-4 to finish 9-6-1 and miss the playoffs completely.
The season went a lot different from what most planned and that is in large part due to poor execution at key moments as well as off the field drama. The Steelers need to take a long hard look in the mirror in the offseason if they want to make it back to the playoffs next year.
We are going to wield the mirror for them now and look at the first group of positions in this three-part series. Today is quarterbacks, running backs and receivers, which also happened to be the main source of most of the team’s drama.
Quarterbacks
Obviously the only person in this position group that mattered most of the year was Ben Roethlisberger. He had one of his best years of his entire career in 2018, which is very disappointing for the fact it was essentially wasted.
Big Ben finished leading the league in yards (5,129), fifth in touchdowns (34), first in attempts (675), first in completions (452) and 14th in the league in completion percentage among quarterbacks with a minimum of 400 passes attempted (67.0).
Even with the year Ben had, the Steelers could not find a way into the playoffs. It is disheartening because regardless of the stats, people still seem to say he is washed up.
Roethlisberger is past his prime, that I will concede, but he is not washed up. He is coming off his best season yet and has a couple of years left in his tank.
The Steelers are good at QB now with Ben and they have two young guys to learn as much as they can before they may battle it out. Mason Rudolph and Joshua Dobbs will likely remain backups in 2019 to a future first-ballot hall-of-fame guy.