(Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images)
With Ben Roethlisberger announcing his retirement last Thursday after 18 seasons as the Steelers' quarterback. Senior analyst Gil Brandt of NFL.com decided to rank his top 15 Steelers of all-time and he had Roethlisberger ranked second behind just Joe Greene.
It's hard to rank a top-15 Steelers players of all-time list, as there have been so many legendary players who have donned the black and gold. But if there was one person to do it, there are not many people out there who are more knowledgeable of the game than former Cowboys personnel man Gil Brandt. Brandt was the Cowboys vice president of player personnel from 1960-1989. So, he was there during the 1970s when the Steelers and Cowboys were the class of the NFL.
Below is an explanation from Grant on why he had Roethlisberger ranked second.
"It's funny to think of now, but when he was a prospect coming out of Miami of Ohio, I remember there being a perception that he had a strong arm but not much athleticism," Brandt wrote. "Suffice it to say that he turned out to be plenty athletic, so good at shrugging off would-be tacklers before rifling the ball downfield that it became one of the defining images of his career. Roethlisberger helped the Steelers win two Super Bowl titles within his first five professional seasons, and while he never won another, he did make Pittsburgh one of the most stable and reliably competitive teams of the past decade and a half. In his time with the team, the Steelers reached the postseason 11 times without posting a single losing season. And while he may not have been asked to do much in the early portion of his career, he eventually showed he could spin it with the best of them, leading the league in passing yards twice (with 4,952 in 2014 and 5,129 in 2018)."
It's a no-brainer that Greene is the best Steeler of all time, as he was the pick that turned the franchise from losers to perennial winners after he was selected in the first round in 1969.
He was also the heart and soul of the famous Steel Curtain.
Roethlisberger coming in at No. 2 is fitting, as he holds pretty much all the major franchise records for a quarterback and spent almost two decades as the face of the franchise.
Behind Greene and Roethlisberger, Brandt had Rod Woodson, Alan Faneca, Mel Blount and Troy Polamalu in his top six. You can read Brandt's entire article in the link below.