Ben Roethlisberger briefly reacted to the DK Metcalf trade last night via his Footbahlin With Ben Instagram account, and he joined Pat McAfee to discuss the exciting news at length.
“You see the blue skies, that’s because we got a crazy offense in Pittsburgh. We don’t see these blue skies too often,” Roethlisberger said to open his appearance Monday on The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN.
After a pretty bleak end to the 2024 season, excitement surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers has been pretty low. This trade makes a statement that the Steelers are not looking at a rebuild, but rather they are looking to reload and continue chasing at least their first playoff win in almost a decade.
One of the main criticisms of the Steelers over the years has been that they invest all of their money and resources into bolstering the defense while largely ignoring the offense. The same has been true since Ben Roethlisberger’s last couple seasons with the team. They have consistently been one of the highest spenders on defense and one of the lowest on offense.
“When you get winds and new signings like this in the free agent market and the Steelers are making moves, it’s a special day in Pittsburgh,” Roethlisberger said. “I was blown away when I saw that news.”
Roethlisberger was the Steelers’ quarterback for 18 years, and while they often took receivers in the second, third, and fourth rounds of the draft, they never made this kind of blockbuster move to give him a new and exciting weapon. The Steelers used to barely use free agency or the trade market to build their team, but times are changing under Omar Khan and the new front office regime.
Pairing Metcalf with Pickens gives the Steelers one of the best one-two punches at wide receiver that they’ve had in a very long time. We should know pretty soon whether Pickens is part of their plans for the 2025 season as he enters the final year of his rookie deal. If he does stay, Roethlisberger would like to see some creative packages to get each of them in advantageous matchups.
“I’d love to see GP go into the slot a little bit,” Roethlisberger said. “I’d love to let him do some things in there. I’m sure DK can go wherever you want, but I would probably keep GP at X and put DK at Z, put him out there to the trips side. That’s what’s so much fun. If you get guys that are predominantly outside, kind of go-ball receivers and put them in the slot and create those matchups because we know that nickel DBs and stuff, they don’t necessarily want to guard those guys.”
Roethlisberger joked about throwing his hat in the ring for the Steelers’ 2025 QB job last night. You can tell that his mind is already racing with the possibilities of what this 2025 offense can become. Hopefully the Steelers’ offensive coaches have the same creative vision.
