The annual Top 100 Players of 2013 show that airs on the NFL Network revealed their Nos. 61-70 ranked players on Thursday night and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger surprisingly wound up in the No. 61 spot this year.
Last year, the 31 year-old Roethlisberger was ranked No. 30 overall in the rankings and fourth at his position behind only Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and Tom Brady. This year, however, 11 other quarterbacks will rank higher than Roethlisberger, who missed four games last season due to injuries suffered in the Week 10 game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Despite his missed games, Roethlisberger finished the 2012 season 284-of-449 passing for 3,265 yards with 26 touchdown passes and 8 interceptions. For comparison\’s sake, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, who will almost certainly wind up being ranked higher than Roethlisberger this year, was 339-of-627 passing during his rookie season for 4,374 yards with 23 touchdown passes and 18 interceptions.
Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians, who of course has coached both Roethlisberger and Luck, chimed in on the rankings after the show.
“That just shows how much the players know. That\’s just absolutely ridiculous,” said Arians, when asked what he thought about Roethlisberger coming in as the 12th ranked quarterback on the list this year. “This is an elite player, has been for a long time and had a great year last year in a new system. Yeah, that baffles me, that one.”
Arians was asked if the low ranking of Roethlisberger says something about the guy, more than it does the player.
“No, because their not voting on that,” said Arians. “They\’re voting on what\’s happening between the white lines and this is a great, elite player, who every Sunday shows up and carries a football team. He is the Pittsburgh Steelers.”
Arians was then asked if he thought that the players that voted held missing games against Roethlisberger due to injuries.
“He hasn\’t missed many,” said Arians. “The injury this year was a critical one to them and their season, but he is their offense and their offense is pretty solid.”
Arians, who went on to say that Roethlisberger is one of the top six quarterbacks currently in the league, was next asked what he thought about Luck being ranked ahead of the Steelers quarterback.
“That surprises me,” said Arians, who was Luck\’s offensive coordinator in 2012 with the Colts. “Andrew is going to be a fantastic quarterback – had an unbelievable year as a rookie – obviously he broke all the records. They\’re two tremendous athletes and neither one gets the credit for their athleticism. Big strong guys. Andrew belongs on the list, but he\’s not at that stage yet. He\’s got to put a couple of rings on his finger and a bunch more wins.”
Look, we all know that these rankings don\’t amount to a hill of beans and once I heard a few years ago that more than just a few players don\’t even vote on this, I really could care less for the show outside of hearing the players comment about other players.
For Roethlisberger to be ranked 12th overall at his position and 61st overall is absolutely crazy and it is clear that whatever players did vote this time around got it way wrong.
So, forget about the overall rankings and instead tell me where you think Roethlisberger ranks right now as far as the quarterback position goes. Is Arians indeed correct in saying that he is still top six?
