3 reasons why the Big Ben era is coming to an end for the Steelers

Ben Roethlisberger is the greatest quarterback in Steelers history, but here’s why his storied career is coming to an abrupt end.

I remember being a child and going into the depth chart in Madden 2005 to replace Tommy Maddox with Ben Roethlisberger at the start of every game. I grew up in a house filled with Steelers fans. Ben was a revelation at the quarterback position for so long. He was like Superman on the field just running around the line of scrimmage with a bad offensive line when his career started.

He’d run all over the field stiff-arming defensive linemen better than some running backs and launching the ball 40-50 yards downfield for a big gain. He brought a certain kind of moxie to the offense even as it was predominantly a run-first team at the start of his career. He brought 2 Super Bowl wins to a franchise that hadn’t sealed the deal in the big game in 30 years. Big Ben went so far as to turn Pittsburgh into an offense-first team from 2014-2018 averaging over 24 points a game in that span.

Even for most of this season until Week 13 the Steelers offense was on track to average over 30 points a game for the first time in Steelers history. Yet Ben looks completely off and now it is a valid concern to wonder if he still has it at this point. He is one of my favorite players of all-time, and he was a foundational piece to the team that turned football into an obsession for me at a young age.

It is heartbreaking for me to say this but the Big Ben era is coming to an end. Here are three reasons why he is in his final days as a football player: