3 positions that deserve the most blame for Steelers embarrassing season

1.  Steelers quarterbacks

In my assessment, the quarterback play was just as bad as the offensive line for the Steelers in 2021; however, I weighted the value of the quarterback position more heavily, so it takes the cake as the worst positional group on the team this year.

Some fans are automatically going to take offense to this, but I’m trying to be as objective as possible. While Ben Roethlisberger has been phenomenal for this football team in the past, he was a bottom-tier quarterback in the NFL this season and it really showed.

Roethlisberger didn’t play like even a shade of his younger self in 2021, despite fans being optimistic that he would improve with another year removed from elbow surgery. He was a statue in the pocket and struggled to routinely complete passes beyond 10 yards. Big Ben finished the season with a disgustingly low 6.2 yards per attempt (6.2 adjusted).

Roethlisberger ranked 29th in the league in this department and 25th in QBR, via ESPN. Because of his diminished skill set and severe lack of mobility in the pocket, the Steelers offense was remarkably limited this year. I know that some of this falls on the poor play of the offensive line, but Ben simply was not good, and if your quarterback plays badly, you really don’t have a chance in today’s NFL.

The Steelers off-ball linebackers were atrocious in 2021 as well, but the trenches being so terrible had a bigger impact on the team this year than the poor linebacker play. These are three positional groups that Pittsburgh must improve in 2022, as a franchise quarterback and the trenches are the foundation of any good team.