The Best Steelers Quarterback Ever: Bradshaw or Roethlisberger?
Ben Roethlisberger’s Stats
Pittsburgh selected Ben Roethlisberger in the first round and the 11th overall pick in 2004. The third quarterback selected behind Eli Manning and Philip Rivers, all who played at least 16 seasons. Thanks to his longevity, Ben falls into the top 10 players in several passing categories.
Compared to Bradshaw, Roethlisberger is 6’5” and 245. Much bigger than Bradshaw was. He used his size to his advantage as well. The Steelers needed a quarterback at the time the Steelers drafted him. Since Bradshaw had retired, the Steelers had a slew of average quarterbacks, but not one that could make fans forget about Bradshaw’s success. Roethlisberger changed that.
When Tommy Maddox faltered against the Ravens three games into 2004, Coach Cowher benched Maddox, Roethlisberger came from behind to stun the Ravens. He proceeded to win every game he started that season until he lost in the AFC championship game against the Patriots, however, did not lose a regular-season game until 2005. He is the winningest quarterback in the NFL to start their career. Here is what Terry Bradshaw had to say about Ben Roethlisberger in an interview in 2013.
Through 17 years, Ben is 150-71-1. He has 4797 completions for 57,991 yards with 376 touchdowns. With his passing statistics, he also has 1363 rushing yards on 487 attempts with 19 touchdowns. The bulk of his rushing yards 874 and 14 touchdowns came from 2004-2011. Since then, he has only rushed for 489 total yards and five touchdowns. His averages are lower than Bradshaws in part; his career has been much longer, and the older he has gotten, the less he has rushed. Whereas Bradshaw could flat run, Big Ben used his size and speed to help prevent additional sacks he would have otherwise taken, extend the play and increase his passing stats.
Twice Roethlisberger has led the league in most passing yards in one season. Three times he had the longest pass in one season. Three times Roethlisberger has had the most passing yards per game in a season. In 2018 he led quarterbacks in the most attempts, completions yardage, and yards per game, the longest pass of 97 yards, and unfortunately, 16 interceptions. Bradshaw never led the league like that in any season he played.
He has certainly done more with his arm than Bradshaw. When the Steelers drafted Roethlisberger, they drafted him to beat other teams with his arm, and Big Ben has done just that. In part, that’s why he has 32 comebacks and is in 5th place overall, and five behind Tom Brady, who is in 2nd place all-time behind Peyton Manning and 43 game-winning drives currently tied in fifth place overall with Brett Farve and three games behind Tom Brady who has 46. Peyton Manning leads with 56. When the Steelers have needed him to win games, he has. At the end of the day, when the Steelers needed Ben to step up and pull out a last-minute victory, he has done just that.
In comparison, Ben Roethlisberger has had many great running backs in his backfield. Over 17 seasons, he has had five different running backs. Over those 17 seasons, those five running backs have combined for 17,460, which comes out to 1027 yards per season. In some games, sure, they dominated; at other times, they did not, thus putting the onus on Big Ben to step up. Whereas in 11 seasons, Bradshaw had two running backs with a combined rushing yards total that averaged 1453 yards a season. That’s a huge difference. With that output, there is no need to pass as much.
Compared to his stellar regular season performances in the postseason, Big Ben has put up equally impressive numbers. He is 13-8 in the playoffs with 422 completions, 5,256 passing yards, and 30 touchdowns. He also has 246 rushing yards on 73 rushing attempts with three touchdowns. Impressive playoff number, to say the least. Although Ironically, if you look at Bradshaw’s playoff numbers adjusting for the Mel Blount rule, his projections exceed Roethlisberger’s numbers. Bradshaw would have had 368 completions for 5320 yards and 38 touchdowns in only 19 playoff games compared to Big Ben, who has played in 21 playoff games. Another indicator that Bradshaw just played at another level in the playoffs.