Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger shocked absolutely no one last Friday when he made it known that he’s finally decided to play in 2017. Roethlisberger, however, has now also apparently let the Steelers know that he’d like to see them draft another offensive weapon for him later this month in Philadelphia.
“Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was in this building not less than two weeks ago and he said to Mike Tomlin, “Please get me some more help.” He was lobbying for a tight end, reported Aditi Kinkhabwala of the NFL Network on Monday.
If Roethlisberger does indeed want the Steelers to draft another tight end this year, it makes you wonder just how confident he is that Ladarius Green will be able to continue his career after missing 10 regular season games and all three playoff contests last season with a slowly healing surgically repaired ankle as well as a concussion.
Green, who signed a four-year, $20 million free agent contract with the Steelers a little more than a year ago, did manage catch 18 passes for 304 yards and a touchdown in his very limited playing time last season. Green has given no indication that his past concussion issues will hamper him in the future and the Steelers have given every indication that he’ll be their starting pass-catching tight end moving forward as well.
While the Steelers were busy scouting tight ends around the country during their annual pro day tour, they’ve only brought one in for a pre-draft visit so far this month and that was local product Scott Orndoff, who won’t count against the team’s allotted 30 being as he played his college football at Pittsburgh.
It will be interesting to see if any other tight ends are ultimately brought in for pre-draft visits moving forward. If that doesn’t occur, Roethlisberger might need to prepare himself for the tight end position to be ignored during the draft.
