Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger recently released a few small video snippets from one of his recent rehab throwing sessions and it included him throwing passes to three of his teammates, wide receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Ryan Switzer and running back James Conner. Since then, not only has Conner talked briefly about how Roethlisberger has looked throwing the football, Switzer has as well.
“You know, like when the ball cuts through the air and you can hear that ‘pfft-pfft-pfft’ sound?” Switzer said, per Kevin Patra of nfl.com via a report in The Athletic. “That’s what JuJu said it sounded like. I didn’t hear it but, man, I have been trying to catch with no gloves for a couple of months to build up these callouses, but ask my hands how they feel catching his throws.”
To hear Switzer talk, Roethlisberger did not hold back during the throwing session that was filmed at Quaker Valley High School.
“Man, he let it rip,” Switzer said. “There was no restraint, no hesitancy, he was just out there. He has been throwing like that for a while and, in my opinion at least, getting out there on that field for the first time and throwing full-speed routes was refreshing. The control factor was taken out of it. He was out there and he was throwing. Did some off-schedule stuff. No restraints. He threw everything — across his body. Everything.”
The most recent throwing session obviously wasn’t Roethlisberger’s first and apparently Switzer has been on the receiving end of a few of those dating back to February, when the quarterback resumed throwing. Reading in between the lines on what Conner and Switzer have both said this week, future throwing sessions with Roethlisberger away from the team’s facility are also planned.
The fact that Roethlisberger got a haircut and beard trim following the recently released video of the throwing session at the local high school is a well-awaited and well-welcomed sign that the Steelers quarterback is once again throwing NFL-quality passes for the first time since he suffered his 2019 season-ending elbow injury in Week 2 against the Seattle Seahawks.
The Steelers are now in the process of re-opening their team facilities as of Tuesday. An NFL memo this past Friday indicated that only players going through injury rehab or needing treatment can report to NFL team facilities once opened. With that, one would think that Roethlisberger will likely visit the Steelers team facility for an in-house checkup soon, if he hasn’t already.
