4 reasons to be concerned with Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger
By Tommy Jaggi
Roethlisberger’s efficiency is below average
If you were to narrow in on Roethlisberger’s touchdown to interception ratio this year, you would think that everything has gone flawlessly for the 38-year-old quarterback in 2020. After all, boasting 7 touchdowns to just 1 interception to go with a 3-0 record seems like a terrific start for any quarterback.
However, this is exactly why raw stats can’t be trusted. Though Big Ben has cashed in a few times with passing scores near the goal line, his raw statistics are a bit deceitful. According to Player Profiler, Roethlisberger is 23rd in the NFL in red-zone completion percentage, 30th in deep ball completion percentage, and 26th in pressured completion percentage.
Even when Ben is deemed as having a clean pocket, 19 other quarterbacks have a better completion percentage when not pressured. Most concerning, his 49.8 total QBR ranks him just 25th in the league; meaning just seven starting NFL quarterbacks have been worse in this department overall this year.
Roethlisberger clearly has lots of time to turn this around, but his efficiency numbers are something that most fans would like to just sweep under the rug. He needs to improve if the Steelers want to be able to knock off good teams in the playoffs this year.