Ben Roethlisberger has never been shy to air his opinions, and that has been especially true over the last few seasons. He has a weekly podcast on YouTube where he discusses at least some Pittsburgh Steelers-related topics each week.
On this Tuesday’s episode, Roethlisberger expressed concerns about the Steelers’ offense and the dying tradition of the “Steelers Way.” There were layers to these concerns, but ultimately, he feared it would mean Pittsburgh was no longer an attractive destination for free agents.
“You can’t just assume that everybody wants to come play for the Steelers anymore like they used to,” Roethlisberger said via his Footbahlin podcast. “People used to wanna come play for Pittsburgh ’cause you had a chance every year to win a Super Bowl.”
Of course, one of the big reasons the Steelers were a constant threat to win the Super Bowl was Roethlisberger’s presence on the team. It helps to have a future Hall of Fame quarterback. However, Ryan Clark pushed back on this comment for a different reason.
“All respect to Ben Roethlisberger — great teammate, Hall of Fame, first-ballot guy to me,” Clark said via ESPN’s NFL Live. “But he’s wrong because when you look at free agent signings in Pittsburgh, you think of names like James Farrior, Jeff Hartings, Kevin Greene, who’s a Hall of Famer, and me. Ain’t no way I should be one of the biggest free-agent signings in a team’s entire history, but I am because the free agency was not where the Steelers built their team. They built their team through the draft.”
Clark has a point. Patrick Queen is an impressive player in his own right, but there is no way he should be the biggest external free-agent signing in team history in terms of contract value. When Roethlisberger was on the Steelers, they built their team through the draft and brought in solid contributors like Clark, Hartings, and Farrior to help plug specific holes. Free agency was much more of a luxury than a necessity, whereas now it’s beginning to turn into a necessity.
There are probably some players who wouldn’t want to come to Pittsburgh because of their recent track record in the playoffs. Still, Queen and DeShon Elliott specifically cited the culture, the defensive roster, and the presence of head coach Mike Tomlin as reasons they did want to come to the team. WR Davante Adams even said he would absolutely like to play for Tomlin and the Steelers if given the opportunity, and that was after their late-season woes in 2024.
Roethlisberger has a point that the Steelers have fallen from grace a little bit, but their issue was with four or five years of subpar drafting by Kevin Colbert at the end of his career. Or, depending on how you look at it, their inability to develop the talent they are given.
Tomlin and guys like T.J. Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Cam Heyward, and others remain a big draw for free agents, and I’m not so sure that will stop anytime soon. However, the only way to get back to the type of culture that Roethlisberger is talking about is by getting a franchise quarterback and building the team through the draft. Omar Khan has started his tenure with two solid draft hauls. The upcoming 2025 NFL Draft will be important in laying the foundation for the next era in Pittsburgh.
