5 Pittsburgh Steelers players who won’t be back in 2022
By Tommy Jaggi
The Pittsburgh Steelers are coming to the end of an era. Here are five players who will not be back in black and gold next season.
The 2021 season isn’t exactly off to an electric start for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and opening with a 1-3 record is never ideal. Fortunately, Mike Tomlin’s team was able to even the score at 3-3 prior to their Week 7 bye.
Regardless of the way things turn out this year, evidence is starting to stack up that many of these players are currently playing their final games in black and gold. Here are five Steelers who will not return to the team in 2022:
Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger
Ben Roethlisberger would have to flip the script entirely at this point for the Steelers to even consider giving him one final chance. Pittsburgh may have already gone out of their way to do exactly that in 2021, as it took a massive pay cut from Ben to stick around.
Now the 18-year veteran is clearly on his last legs, and things don’t appear to be getting much better. Roethlisberger is currently one of the least-efficient quarterbacks in the league in most major categories, according to PlayerProfiler.com — a trend that has been steady since the second half of the 2020 season.
With an expiring voidable-year contract following the season, Pittsburgh will take their dead money loss from Ben in 2022 and move on with a new face at the QB position next year.