Ben Roethlisberger’s name continues to be brought up in the news recently for a plethora of reasons, from ESPN’s Mike Tannenbaum saying he’d be benched in 2021, to ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky defending Roethlisberger and pointing out how good he’s been in his last two seasons as a starter.
If that wasn’t enough though, WXDX and TribLive’s Mark Madden took his seat at the table Saturday, penning a column that said the harshest critics “might be right” about Roethlisberger.
Talk about going out on a limb.
They might be right, they might be wrong. Riveting.
Madden’s take came just days after Tannenbaum stated his thoughts on ESPN’s “Get Up” morning show, causing quite the discussion on television and on social media in the moments following the hottest of hot takes.
“Who’d Tannenbaum ever beat? His stints as an executive with NFL teams amounted to zilch,” Madden writes. “But he might be right. (But Roethlisberger won’t get benched. If he stinks and the Pittsburgh Steelers stink, Roethlisberger will be “hurt.” If he’s not really hurt.)”
The Steelers are never going to send Roethlisberger out with a whimper like Madden thinks, should they stink and he stinks. Roethlisberger will be allowed to go out on his shield, rather than on the sidelines, nursing some fake injury as Madden proclaims.
When it comes to Roethlisberger and the stances against him from Tannenbaum, Pro Football Focus, NBC Sports and more, chances are they won’t be right. Not like they want to be.
Though Roethlisberger is not without fault or criticism for how the 2020 season came to a close, the takes that have been flying this offseason make him out to be a quarterback that can barely lift his right arm or barely throw the football past five yards. His career is coming to a close and he’s certainly not the same quarterback he was in his prime, but he’s also not the worst quarterback in the division or one of the worst ones in the league.
But, like Madden tries to write, some of these analysts might be right once in awhile when it comes to Roethlisberger, just maybe not in the way they envision when they first spew the takes.
