Bruce Arians recently retired from the Arizona Cardinals and on Tuesday he was a guest on The Rich Eisen Show and talked about several subjects. One of those subjects Arians talked about was Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and whether or not he thinks he’ll ultimately be back in 2018.
“I do,” Arians told Rich Eisen. “I think a lot of things have to fall in place for him to come back. If he wins it all I think he’ll try to do it again. I think the coaching staff has a big part in that, you know, if they can keep everybody together.”
Arians, who was once the Steelers offensive coordinator from 2007–2011, is still reportedly close friends with Roethlisberger so he might already be privy to a few thoughts the Steelers quarterback has potentially already had as it relates to him possibly returning next season.
Back to reality for a second, it’s really hard to imagine that Roethlisberger would really walk away from the Steelers should he lose either this coming weekend against the Jacksonville Jaguars, or possibly even to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game a week from this coming Sunday. He’s had a great season and showed that he’s far from being done.
Potential retirement talk aside, Arians thinks the Steelers and Roethlisberger can ultimately make to this season’s AFC Championship game and even beat the Patriots this time around should that ultimately wind up being the match up.
“Home field advantage is almost out the window any more, except for New England,” Arians told Eisen. “And I think Pittsburgh can go up there and win. They’re going to have to play really well.”
Arians said he believes that the Steelers have the better football team between them and the Patriots as long as they have Roethlisberger, wide receiver Antonio Brown and running back Le’Veon Bell all healthy.
“I really think with Pittsburgh healthy, with all three guys, not having Le’Veon last year really changed that [AFC Championship] game,” Arians said.
When put on the spot by Eisen, Arians said he predicts this years Super Bowl combatants to be the Steelers and the Atlanta Falcons. Surprisingly, he went to say that he thinks the Falcons would win such a Super Bowl matchup.
“No, I think they win,” Arians said of the Falcons.
Arians might be asked to talk more about Roethlisberger and the playoffs in the near future as he told Eisen on Tuesday that he hopes to get into the media side of the business now that he’s retired from coaching. In short, I’m sure Arians will be asked to be a guest analyst in the coming weeks.
Since he's soon-to-be one of us in the sports media, we put @BruceArians through the ringer on the hot #NFL topics heading in to #NFL Divisional Round and #NFLDraft evaluation period:#Cardinals #Steelers #BakerMayfield #SB52 #Falcons pic.twitter.com/0SAXl85FSS
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) January 10, 2018
