The biggest debate during the 2021 offseason was whether the Pittsburgh Steelers should bring Ben Roethlisberger back. To be honest, the Steelers had no choice, but to bring Ben Roethlisberger back in 2021 because who else did they have to take over the quarterback position? Mason Rudolph and Dwayne Haskins will not get the job done if they were given the starting quarterback position heading into the 2021 season. That is exactly why the Pittsburgh Steelers have decided to bring Ben Roethlisberger back. Ben gives the Steelers the best chance to win going into the 2021 season.
Pro Football Focus recently wrote an article listing their least favorite decision made by all 32 NFL teams in free agency. PFF says bringing Ben Roethlisberger back is their least favorite decision the Steelers have made in the 2021 offseason. The Steelers had to make a tough decision during the 2021 offseason. They either had to cut Ben Roethlisberger or restructure his contract for one last ride in 2021. PFF says Pittsburgh decided to do the latter and that is not a good thing.
There were signs of Ben Roethlisberger declining all the way back in 2018 and he looked rough in his lone game in 2019. In 2021 Ben Roethlisberger's decline became very apparent. His downfield passing was inconsistent, as he produced the sixth-worst uncatchable pass rate when targeting the sticks.
That is a pretty brutal assessment by Pro Football Focus who have not been fans of Ben Roethlisberger from the get-go. They failed to mention the Steelers had an abysmal running game and offensive line in 2020 and the Steelers still managed to go 12-4 and win the AFC North. If you look at Ben Roethlisberger's statistics compared to the other AFC North quarterbacks you would realize Ben Roethlisberger was the best quarterback in the AFC North in 2020.
The Steelers had no choice, but to bring Ben Roethlisberger back in 2021. Again he gives them the best chance to win if they can fix their running game and offensive line. That would take the pressure away from Ben Roethlisberger having to throw the ball 50 times a game and the Steelers would not look one-dimensional in 2021 like they did in 2020. That was their biggest issue during the 2020 season. Not Ben Roethlisberger.