The Pittsburgh Steelers have been in quarterback purgatory since future Hall of Fame quarterback Ben Roethlisberger retired in January of 2022. This season will mark the fifth straight year that the Steelers start a new quarterback in Week 1.
The Steelers have failed to address the games most important position, and former All-Pro running back LeSean McCoy points the finger at Big Ben. He thinks Roethlisberger held the organization back by not being willing to mentor a young quarterback.
Roethlisberger famously was not happy after the Steelers selected Mason Rudolph in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft. He thought it was a wasted pick, as it did not help the team immediately. Roethlisberger and Rudolph also were never close. To say the least, it was a strained relationship.
"You know whose fault it is? Big Ben's fault," McCoy said on FS1's The Facility. "Let me take you back to Big Ben. First of all, Big Ben was done a long time before he was done. I'm looking like, 'Wow, you're gonna let him keep messing up the whole team.' The problem was, when Big Ben was playing badly, in an interview, he said, 'I don't really have it anymore,' and when a player says that, the GM, coach, ownership should go, 'We've got to do something else. We've got to get a backup plan.' You know what they did? They didn't because when they were trying to draft someone, he got upset."
Warren Sharp of Sharp Football has a similar opinion. He thinks Roethlisberger's stranglehold on the team's QB plans held them back.
"One thing I agree with – the Steelers have been a failure with regard to their succession plan for Big Ben. He contemplated retirement in 2017 & 2018. The Steelers drafted ONE QB the next 6 years combined (from 2018) before round 7. That's no way to find a new franchise QB," Sharp wrote on X.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts was selected with the No. 53 overall pick by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2020 NFL Draft, but when he saw the Pennsylvania caller ID pop up on his phone, he thought he was going to the Steelers.
"I know Pittsburgh had maybe the 48th pick or 40 something. Their first pick was in the second round and I thought I was going to Pittsburgh," Hurts said on the New Heights podcast. "So when I saw PA, I'm like, 'Oh, this is Pittsburgh.'"
Instead, the Steelers opted to draft wide receiver Chase Claypool with the No. 49 overall pick, which is a decision they would later come to regret.
Hindsight is 20/20, but Hurts would have been an ideal replacement for Roethlisberger, especially considering that the 38-year-old quarterback was coming off a season-ending elbow injury in 2019.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Former All-Pro RB Points Finger at Big Ben for Steelers QB Issues
