Poll and ranking season continues on and on Wednesday, ESPN.com poll of 26 league insiders resulted in Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger being ranked seventh-overall at his position and placed in the second-tier.
Here is the summary for Roethlisberger per Mike Sando of ESPN Insider.
One of the offensive coaches placed Rivers and Roethlisberger in the top tier. He noted that Rivers wins with his mind while Roethlisberger wins with his physical abilities. Several GMs said they thought Roethlisberger had declined into the second tier over the past couple seasons. “If you were there in Pittsburgh, you saw him run the no-huddle, you saw the command, you saw him run and make plays,” a coordinator said. “Other people will not think as much of him. He is a very good quarterback, able to get himself out of tough positions.”
Said one GM: “Ben plays big-boy football — and regardless of what you think, he knows how to win the game.”
Sando explains in his Insider piece that he asked 26 league insiders to grade every projected starting quarterback on a 1-5 scale, with “one” reserved for the best and “five” for the worst. Taking part in the poll were eight general managers, two former GMs, four pro personnel evaluators, seven coordinators, two head coaches and two position coaches.
The six quarterbacks ranked ahead of Roethlisberger aren’t hard to figure out. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees all tied for first in the poll and those four were followed by Andrew Luck and Philip Rivers.
