Life without Ben Roethlisberger has been rough for the Pittsburgh Steelers. That’s to be expected, because franchise quarterbacks don’t grow on trees. Roethlisberger gave the Steelers nearly 20 years of excellent play, helping them win two Super Bowls. That kind of talent is tough to come by. However, Hines Ward, now the wide receivers coach for Arizona State University, believes Sam Leavitt shares the same instinct had by Roethlisberger.
“For me, being a coach that’s on the sideline, I can tell you, when we call a TV timeout and we’re all on the sideline, Sam has that look in his eyes like, ‘We will not be stopped. We’re gonna score,'” Ward said recently on the podcast Speak of the Devils. “He wants to score each and every time he touches a football.
“He had that same look that Ben Roethlisberger had. Any time I look at Ben in his eyes, I just knew we were gonna win a game because he had that look. He was not gonna be denied of us winning. I see a little bit of Ben in Sam in that aspect of it, just watching him in his approach because he’s very competitive as all get out.”
That’s high praise from Ward. Roethlisberger is going to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame one day. Compare that to Leavitt, who only became Arizona State’s starter last year. Roethlisberger’s clutch factor was one of the best aspects of his game. He put together multiple incredible comebacks, including in Super Bowl 43.
Leavitt’s career will be a fun one to follow. As a redshirt sophomore, he should have a lot of football left ahead of him. Leavitt threw for 2,885 yards, 24 touchdowns and only six interceptions. He’s a little smaller than Roethlisberger, so Ward isn’t directly comparing how they play. However, it sounds like he sees that same unyielding competitiveness Roethlisberger had in Leavitt.
Maybe one day Leavitt will show Steelers fans why Ward compared him to Roethlisberger. In his career, Roethlisberger led 53 game-winning drives. Pittsburgh has missed that. With no clear long-term plan at quarterback, maybe the Steelers will be in a place to draft Leavitt one day.
We’re still a while away from that. Hopefully, the Steelers’ next franchise quarterback will have that same mentality that Ward is describing. Perhaps that will help them finally win a playoff game. The unwillingness to accept defeat did a lot for Roethlisberger’s career. We’ll see if what Ward sees in Leavitt shows up on the field. If it does, he should have a bright future ahead of him.
