Who cares where Ben Roethlisberger ranks in stats, fantasy points, MVP votes, national acclaim or anything like that?
Not Roethlisberger. Not Mike Tomlin. And neither should anyone else.
He's the field general who's turned the Steelers' offense into the NFL's fourth-most productive in two categories, with Roethlisberger throwing 25 touchdowns in 10 games, and with the team scoring 29.8 points per game. To the latter, if that ranking were to rise even on more notch, it'd be the second-highest in franchise history, trailing only the No. 1 from the Super Bowl champions of 1979.
And I know, I said who cares about stats, but bear with me.
How this offense is scoring isn't flashy with superstar delivery or the kind of plays that make EA Sports put any player's Madden rating sky high. It's come from nothing more exciting than Roethlisberger seeing the field, understanding defenses, and taking advantage of what's there.
A big part of what's different has been Roethlisberger's willingness to spread the ball around and not focus on one or two primary targets. If you look back over the past decade, even before Antonio Brown, Roethlisberger always had one, sometimes two, receivers who took on the majority of receiving yards for the team, and then a huge drop-off to all his other targets. Even in 2010, the last time the Steelers made the Super Bowl, Mike Wallace led the team with 1,267 receiving yards and the next closest was Hines Ward with 755.
That's not the case in 2020. Chase Claypool leads the team with 559 receiving yards, Diontae Johnson right behind with 537, and JuJu Smith-Schuster on his heels with 535. Even the team's fourth option in Eric Ebron is only 200 yards behind Claypool with 359 yards. There's never been such an even spread of the Steelers' top targets that the fourth-leading option was within 200 receiving yards reach of the team's leading receiver. Not once. Came close in 2012, but that was it.
That's because Roethlisberger is focusing on opponents and where they're going, and not just where his favorite targets run their routes. He combines that with his experience to understand defenses, their disguises and how to attack them with his personnel.
Here's an example where the Cowboys try to show several different looks in coverage, but Roethlisberger quickly dissects through all of it:
Notice the initial one-high safety look to give the appearance of Cover 1 or Cover 3 defense. It's truly a Cover 4, as the Cowboys back off both safeties and cornerbacks to play deep quarters coverage, each with the responsibility of not getting beat deep.
The disguise here is to get Roethlisberger to think a seam will be open on a deep ball where four defenders are waiting. But the weakness to a Cover 4 is that, with four defenders in deep coverage and four defenders rushing, only three can be left in underneath coverage. The trick for Roethlisberger is to recognize the disguise and the Cover 4, locate those three underneath defenders and throw to the target that's underneath the deep coverage but away from the three defenders in intermediate coverage.
He stares down the middle of the field, sees that's where the Cowboys' focus is, and finds Johnson on an out route all by himself underneath a man in deep coverage. Johnson does the rest with his feet,
Looks easy, but it can be complicated when you're not as locked in as Roethlisberger has been this season.
He's been locked in and in lock step with his receivers.
Tomlin talked about that Monday: "I think one of the things that has been really impressive about him and his performance and his interactions with this group is the amount of patience he’s shown in terms of the development of our young receiving corps and how diligent he has been in terms of working with them and working as a part of the group to help them develop individually and collectively. I just can’t say enough about the efforts of Ben in terms of working with them day-in and day-out and cultivating the type of cohesion that is required for us to be successful."
Through that work and the trust that's resulted, Roethlisberger has forced defenses to honor every option on the field.
Watch how he looks off this single-high safety by looking to his left to start a play Sunday in Jacksonville:
He was never going that way. By the time he plants his back foot to set and throw, he looks right at Claypool and throws the perfect ball, with the safety having no time to react fast enough to help against the 31-yard touchdown. And that's all set up by Roethlisberger knowing what's coming.
Consistently, Roethlisberger has toyed with secondaries to find weak spots in defenses, even when they're trying to hide them.
Watch how he does that to Vonn Bell and the Bengals:
Roethlisberger recognizes the Bengals in a zone defense with Bell playing the only deep safety to the left and William Jackson III responsible for the sideline. Jackson has to honor Jaylen Samuels' out route, or give up an easy score. Meanwhile, Bell is the only defensive back who can stop Smith-Schuster's deep crossing pattern into the end zone.
With Bell on an island, his options are either sell out in the front of the end zone to take away an easier target for Smith-Schuster, or stay back and hope Roethlisberger doesn't see it. He chooses the former, and Roethlisberger just waits him out. Once Bell gets turned around, Smith-Schuster is wide open in the end zone and nobody is there to save Bell.
That's a rough position for any safety, and Roethlisberger seized it.
Part of what's also made this easier has been how quickly the Steelers' receivers have developed into sharp route runners that force defenders to consider so many different options. Not only does Roethlisberger have that relationship with them, but those receivers give him every reason to have faith that they'll hold up their end of the passing game.
Tomlin thinks the group is on their way to a historic year.
"They’re developing every week," Tomlin said of his receivers. "In an effort to establish themselves from a historical perspective those significant challenges lie ahead as you get into playoff races and in the playoffs themselves I think that’s when you really stake the claim on historical positioning and the things of that nature. I like the group. I like their talents. I like their selflessness. I like their work day-to-day, but they are very much writing their stories from a historical perspective."
Their day-to-day work has made them extremely reliable, including the rookie in Claypool.
Watch how sharp his corner route is against the Ravens' Cover 2 zone coverage:
You can see Marcus Peters pinch underneath on Ray-Ray McCloud during the play, giving up the right sideline. The deep safety behind him has to cover from the inside going out, meaning he can't just jump outside of Claypool's corner route without vacating his zone responsibility.
A lazier route might've gave the Baltimore secondary a chance to jump on the play, but Claypool sharp route and Roethlisberger's perfect timing and placement of the ball finish the job. The Ravens couldn't just commit to stopping Claypool, because they knew Roethlisberger would check down from him and take whoever else they left open.
Don't let the lack of any individual accolades fool you. This offense is putting on some special performances right now. And it's Roethlisberger, singularly, leading and lighting the way.