As expected, Pittsburgh Steelers team president Art Rooney II has finally emerged for his annual end-of-the-season question and answer session with the local media and as you can imagine, the future of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was discussed.
Despite Roethlisberger claiming last Tuesday on his radio show that he was unsure if he’d play in 2017, Rooney said today that he believes the Steelers’ quarterback will be back next season, according to Will Graves of the Associated Press.
“I expect he’ll be back but he’s got to make that decision,” Rooney said, according to Chris Bradford of The Beaver County Times.
According to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rooney said Tuesday he recently had a “good conversation” with Roethlisberger and he personally thinks the quarterback’s recent comments might be related to frustration related to the team’s loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game, as well as concerns about his age.
While Rooney does expect Roethlisberger to return in 2017, he did admit Tuesday that it might be time for the Steelers to draft another quarterback this year. That statement probably isn’t overly surprising being as Landry Jones is not expected back next season as he’s currently set to be an unrestricted free agent.
