With the recent transition the Steelers have undergone, what do we think is going through the mind of Ben Roethlisberger?
For the 43 years that I have been a Steelers fan, the one constant has been change. Granted, prior to the free agency model that exists today, there was not much change in personnel, save the occasional retirement, the occasional release of a player, or the expansion draft that took place in 1976 when the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers entered the league.
Other than the aforementioned, football fans, Steelers fans included, could generally count on the players from the previous season being on the team the following season. It really wasn’t until the dawn of free agency that fans were unsure about who would be suiting up for their team in any given season.
Putting retirements aside, the two factors that exist in today’s game that could completely alter the landscape of a team are free agency, as we alluded to, and the outright release of a player. Steelers fans, unfortunately, have had to deal with the latter and with the former, as well as a retirement of a player whom I consider to be the third greatest center in Steelers history.
While there’s no question in my mind that retirement, the loss of players associated with free agency, and the release of a player as beloved as David DeCastro, the six-time Pro Bowler, and two-time All-Pro guard, have a profound impact on us, the fans, I often wonder how these events affect the players who are left, particularly the players in a particular position group and a player like Ben Roethlisberger, our franchise and future Hall of Fame QB.
The loss of stability on the offensive line may have a lasting impact on ‘Big Ben’
Let’s not kid ourselves here; the loss of DeCastro is a blow to the offensive line and to ‘Big Ben’. I think it’s fair to say that as the ‘O-line’ goes, ‘Big Ben’ goes. Yes, ‘Big Ben’ can still make plays on his own, but he needs the ‘O-line’ to do their part in giving him the protection he needs in order for him to make said plays.
I really have to wonder what ‘Big Ben’ is thinking at this moment knowing that three of the starting five ‘O-lineman’ from the 2020 season are no longer on our team. I think fans would be foolish to assume that ‘Big Ben’ is just going to ‘roll with the punches’, as it were.
Since I have never spoken to ‘Big Ben’, I certainly have no insight as to what he may be thinking about the current state of affairs as it pertains to the ‘O-line’, but here is what I am thinking: The Steelers have a championship-caliber defense, our franchise QB re-worked his contract so that we would have much-needed cap space, our future Hall of Fame center retired, our starting LT signed with an AFC North rival in free agency and we just released the last stalwart on the ‘O-line’.
I guess we’re just going to run the ball every play because we are surely not going to allow ‘Big Ben’ to return to the days of a vertical passing game. We can’t; I don’t think we will have the ‘horses’ upfront to play that style of offense. Now, I certainly could be judging our situation on the ‘O-line’ too harshly, Frankly, I hope I am completely ‘off-base’ with my assessment.
If the 2021 season will be the ‘swan song’ for ‘Big Ben’-as an aside, I hope it is not-the Steelers need to do everything we can to assure that he is protected, that he is able to do the things on offense that he knows he can do and that he knows he needs to do in order to bring home another Lombardy trophy, but, that is dependent on the five guys in the trenches.