4 reasons why Steelers made right move by keeping Ben

Like it or not Ben played very well for the majority of the season.

Before I get into the good things we saw from Ben I will acknowledge that the Steelers offense crashed and burned in the latter part of the season and that is including Ben who also played poorly near the end. Yet, Ben had a good individual performance for much of the year.

Statistically, he made one major improvement in 2020. His decision-making was better this season than I ever remember it being. Ben attempted 608 passes in 2020 which is tied for second-most in his career. He threw 10 interceptions which is the 6th lowest total of his career. Considering that more than 1 of these interceptions came off of tipped passes at the line of scrimmage, I can’t fault his decision-making around some of these INT’s.

Furthermore, even as Ben’s yardage total was his 8th lowest in 2020, The Steelers had 30 passes dropped in 2020. They were one of two teams with at least 30 drops and were one drop away from leading the league in this category. Regardless of all of that Ben’s play didn’t dip until he started throwing the ball over 50 times a game in consecutive weeks.

With an arm coming off major surgery and being nearly 40 years old, the dip in his accuracy and velocity near the end of the season is almost certainly attributed to that many pass attempts in a short period of time during a 12 game stretch stemming from a Week 4 bye. With a more balanced attack, Ben showed in the earlier part of the season he can still win big games against great teams.

Look at the win against Tennessee for example. One of his 3 interceptions was a last-ditch pass attempt at the end of the half as time was running out, while another of his interceptions was due to the pass being tipped at the line of scrimmage. He still completed over 65% of his passes for 250+ yards and two touchdowns.

If Ben can maintain that level of play this season but we fail to win the Super Bowl again, I would take a slightly worse Ben in 2022 at a $3 million cap hit. That gives Pittsburgh the financial room to build as good of a team as we have seen in years around Ben for 2022.