Ben Roethlisberger’s career has never been one with gaudy numbers some quarterbacks put up. It’s been about winning and making plays in the game’s biggest moment. But soon enough, one of those numbers will put him in an elite club.
Roethlisberger is just 1124 yards away from 50,000 in his career. It’ll make him just the 8th QB in NFL history to do so. The others make up an awfully impressive list.
Peyton Manning
Brett Favre
Drew Brees
Tom Brady
Dan Marino
John Elway
Eli Manning
All quarterbacks who are, or will be, in the Hall of Fame (Eli, I suppose, is debatable, but he’s still likely).
Only once in his career has Roethlisberger led the league in passing, 2014 when he fell just shy of 5000 yards. This year, he’s on pace for another 4000 yard season, just the fifth of his career.
Impressively enough, “the big three” of the 2004 draft class are all likely to hit that mark. Manning did it last week, Roethlisberger should do it in about a month, and Philip Rivers is only 1000 yards behind Big Ben.
Maybe in a decade, the 50,000 barrier won’t be as meaningful. Guys like Matt Ryan, Aaron Rodgers, and Matthew Stafford all could join that club and with the rise of the passing game in the NFL, big numbers will become much more common.
But for someone like Roethlisberger, not always given the credit he deserves, and beginning his career in a run-first offense, to reach this figure is remarkable.
Just to put it in perspective, and yes, the eras played a big role, Roethlisberger is more than 20,000 yards ahead of Terry Bradshaw, who never had a 4000 yard passing season.
Roethlisberger is also in the top ten in passing touchdowns with 311.
Thank God this team didn’t take Shawn Andrews.
