Steelers Now
The Pittsburgh Steelers started the 2020 season 11-0, but collapsed down the stretch, losing five of their last six games. That includes the embarrassing Wild Card loss to the Cleveland Browns at Heinz Field.
Last month, former Steelers tight end Eric Ebron pointed the finger at Ben Roethlisberger for went wrong late in the 2020 season.
“We was snapping,” Ebron said on the Raw Room podcast. “We had a meeting. Ben called all the starters into the meeting. He was like, ‘Fellas, my knees is getting bad. I’m not gonna be able to get up under center.’ I go, ‘We’re one-dimensional.’ We’re about to run from shotgun and pass from shotgun. Makes it very obvious for the defense.
“We turn one dimensional, I’m like, ‘Cool, we kind of been shotgun the whole time. We should be straight, right? We forgot [the other team] gets paid, too. They figured out we went one-dimensional and Ben wasn’t getting under center. They started sending everything. Realized [Roethlisberger] couldn’t move. We was cooked.”
Ebron provided more details about Roethlisberger’s decline on Cam Heyward’s Not Just Football podcast.
“Should have been his last season the year before,” Ebron said of Roethlisberger returning for the 2021 season. “I ain’t gonna lie, his ass should have retired. I’m sorry bro, I love Ben. I grew up a fan of Ben. So I can never take shots at Ben. He was not supposed to f***ing come back, Cam. He was not supposed to come back. Yes, we didn’t have a quarterback. We could have drafted, and with that system, it would have been bad, I get it. But Ben, the way he ended the year, how the f**k did you think he was going to start the year?
“We knew our offense wasn’t going to be much of anything,” Ebron said. “It couldn’t have been.”
Roethlisberger was 38 at the time, and pretty much had no mobility. His lower body was shot. That was evident in 2020 and 2021.
Roethlisberger led the Steelers to a 9-6-1 season and a playoff berth in his final season, but it ended with a blowout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Wild Card round.
In a 2022 interview, Roethlisberger told Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that general manager Kevin Colbert didn’t want him back for the 2021 season.
Roethlisberger added that head coach Mike Tomlin was a “little” ready to move on and that it was team owner Art Rooney II who wanted him back for one last year.
“I thought I went out on my terms,” Roethlisberger told Cook. “I never wanted to stay too long. I know some people might think I did. ‘You stayed last year.’ But I thought I played pretty well last year, to be honest. My arm feels like I still could go out and play. I’m pretty confident I could still play. But it’s every day. It’s mental. Not having to prepare for camp and the season has been the biggest blessing...
