Pros and cons of Steelers keeping Ben Roethlisberger for 2021 season

Pros of keeping Ben Roethlisberger

The list of reasons to want to keep Ben Roethlisberger around has dwindled in recent years, but there are still some to point to. In theory, bringing in a young quarterback with less mileage on the tires sounds terrific, but it’s also important to consider how many growing pains go into that process. Unless Pittsburgh is willing to mortgage their draft capital over the next few years, it’s unlikely they will be able to land a quarterback that could put them in a winning situation right away. There’s also no guarantee that whoever they get won’t be replaced after a few years – starting the process all over again.

The Steelers could also go another route with this and stream free agent quarterbacks or trade for a veteran. However, any team willing to give up the quarterback they had probably isn’t going to be good enough to win you a Super Bowl, and there is a reason those other players are in free agency. Worst yet, Pittsburgh could role with Mason Rudolph and there’s a chance they aren’t even a competitive organization with him at the helm.

In addition, Ben is a veteran leader who has been in big situations before. Though his performance against the Browns in the playoffs is one we would like to forget, he knows how to lead a team and he did a good job of doing so in the first half of the season. While he’s nowhere near the player he used to be, he offers stability to an offense that is going to have an incredible amount of turnover this offseason. With Pittsburgh set to lose so many contributors in free agency, you can make a case for wanting to keep Ben around in 2021.