Ben Roethlisberger knows he let the Steelers down over the final month of the season in 2020.
The quarterback, who had been such a key contributor to the team's 11-0 start knows he didn't play his best when it counted the most, throwing seven of his 10 regular season interceptions in the team's final six games, then throwing four more interceptions in the Steelers' 48-37 playoff loss to the Browns.
You can bet that was a driving force for the 39-year-old Roethlisberger to not only want to return for a team-record 18th NFL season, but his willingness to take a $5 million pay cut to make that happen.
"I felt it was the right thing to do if I wanted to play. I felt relatively healthy, all things considered at the end of the season. I just felt I had more in the tank and disappointed about the way the season ended, obviously, and hate to go out that way," Roethlisberger said, adding the cut in pay was his idea. "I just wanted to let them know that if they wanted me back, I would give them everything I’ve got."
The idea is that Roethlisberger will have more left in the tank at the end of this season than he did a year ago.
The quarterback admitted Tuesday at the Steelers' OTA sessions that he wasn't playing at his best heading into December a year ago, something that directly led to the Steelers getting bounced from the playoffs in the opening round after a 12-4 regular season that included a team-best 11-game winning streak to open the season.
"I didn’t play well enough at the end of the season. It’s no secret and I’ll be the first to point the thumb at myself," Roethlisberger said. "When the ball is in your hand every play, you have to make plays and you have to play better football. If a quarterback, myself, is not playing good at the end of a season, that is directly related to winning and losing. I’ll take that playoff (game) and those last games on me. (I was) just feeling worn down and not playing good enough football at the end of the season."
It's a big admission, one you probably wouldn't have gotten from Roethlisberger during what was his comeback season from a 2019 elbow injury that required surgery to repair three tendons in his elbow.
Last year at this time, Roethlisberger was still in the learning process, figuring out what he could and couldn't do with his surgically repaired arm. The Steelers didn't have OTA sessions because of the pandemic, so Roethlisberger was taking his receivers off on his own and throwing to them. And throwing to them. And throwing to them.
It might have had an effect on him wearing down late in a season in which he also led the NFL in passing attempts per game, averaging 40.5 in the 15 games in which he played.
But Roethlisberger also was throwing the ball more than he ever had in the offseason a year ago to make sure his arm was sound.
"Last year, I threw more. I threw thousands of balls in the offseason because we were rehabbing," he said. "This year, it’s gone back to the normal routine of throwing here, doing a little bit at home with the trainer. But mostly taking time off. I took a lot of time off from throwing this offseason. I hope and think it will really pay dividends this year."
So, too, should the addition of first-round running back Najee Harris.
With what the Steelers hope is a better running game and a quarterback who has been better able to rest his arm, the team has its sights set on a better finish to 2021. We'll see if that's realistic, but it's certainly not going into the season hoping things will change. That, along with new offensive coordinator Matt Canada's offense, are real change.
But no matter what else changes around him -- and there's been plenty -- the Steelers' success in 2021 will largely hinge on how the right arm of Roethlisberger performs.
And right now, he seems to feel better than he did a year ago. Mike Tomlin noted a couple of times in training camp last season that Roethlisberger wasn't throwing his spirals as tightly as he had in the past.
Now?
"No excuses. My arm feels great, though," Roethlisberger said. "I’d like to wait until we get into more of the season and see how it feels. Right now it feels really good. My arm was healed. I played. But I think anybody that has a major surgery, it almost takes that first year back. It’s still, you’re back, but are you really back? That’s why I want to reserve the answer until we get into the season a little bit to let you know how my arm feels, even compared to last year."
• So, what's this new offense going to look like under Canada?
Well, probably similar to the old one -- just with more jet sweep motions and things of that nature.
"Yeah, he’s got more motions, but I feel like that’s where the NFL is going now with more of the jet-sweep motions," Roethlisberger said. "I can go under center. I never said I didn’t like it. We’ll be under center. We’ll be in the gun. We’ll move. We’ll throw a lot of different looks and schemes at people and see what works."
This was after Roethlisberger's tongue-in-cheek statement that the offense was going to be completely different. I hope people didn't hear that part of the sound byte and fall for it. That was clearly Roethlisberger being sarcastic.
Roethlisberger has been in constant communication with Canada in regard to building this offense. And that's how it should be. Part of being a good coach is not asking your players to do things they either can't do or are not comfortable doing.
"We’ve had quite a few communications. He’s come over. We’ve talked. I told him, ‘I know this is your offense.’ He said, ‘No, it’s ours,’" Roethlisberger said. "But it’s his offense and I’m trying to do everything I can to be open to the new challenge and say, ‘OK, I’m learning.’ If something is confusing or if something doesn’t quite make sense, rather than say ‘I hate this,’ it’s ‘OK, tell my how I can make this better, or tell my how I can learn the formation name, what is your trick to learning things?’
"So, we just have been constantly communicating. And he’s been really good in saying, ‘Hey Ben, if there’s something you don’t like, let me know, and we can talk through it or throw it out.’ Communication is key to everything. That’s what we’ve been doing and it’s been really good so far."
• So, why did Roethlisberger, like Cam Heyward, feel it was important for him to be at OTAs this year?
First and foremost, he's still learning the Canada verbiage. But secondly, he realizes the value of a Hall of Fame player -- particularly a Hall of Fame quarterback -- being around so many new teammates.
"I’m here. I’m in town, so I might as well be here spending time with, we’ve got new centers, and yeah, I’ve worked with J.C. (Hassenauer), (B.J.) Finney has been here in the past, but KG (Kendrick Green) is new," Roethlisberger said. "Just to get a relationship with them. The receivers are guys that I know well, but there’s still something to be said about being here, just letting guys see you, speaking every so often to the group, breaking the offense down at the end of practice, those kind of things. To me, it was important to be here, and that’s why I’m here."
That goes a long way toward getting the awe factor out of the way.
Think about it. When Roethlisberger was playing his first NFL game in 2004, about half of the roster was getting on the school bus to start first grade or kindergarten -- if not younger.
There are a lot of young guys on this roster being counted on to play key roles. They have to realize the quarterback is fully committed and all-in on this season, just like they are. When they see that, it makes it easier for them to make that same level of commitment.
• We won't know if the Steelers' reclamation project with Dwayne Haskins will work until we get to the preseason, but he's impressed Roethlisberger with his throwing.
"His release and throwing mechanics are some of the prettiest I’ve ever seen," Roethlisberger said of the third-year quarterback. "I told him I wish I had that, just everything he does. And he throws the ball, I joke that he could throw the ball through a car wash and it wouldn’t get wet. He’s learning. It’s obviously a new system for him. He’s young in the league. But it’s fun to have that young energy around and, like I said, when he throws the football, it’s pretty."
Haskins does have a big arm. And he does have quite a bit of zip on the ball. You can see why he was a first-round draft pick of Washington in 2019.
That said, it will be interesting to see how he handles being in a quarterback competition. He's not fighting for the No. 1 or 2 job here in Pittsburgh. He's fighting for a roster spot.
There's definite talent there.
• Some made something of a big deal about many of the team's veteran players not being in attendance the first week of OTAs. Well, we saw more players trickle in Tuesday for the start of Week 2. I would expect to see that trend continue over the final six of these sessions leading up to the mandatory minicamp.
And that's a good thing -- especially on the offensive side of the ball. As Roethlisberger mentioned, there is new terminology involved with Canada's offense -- even if the formations and such are the same.
"It’s new. There is a lot of new," Roethlisberger said. "For someone who has had the same offense for a long time, verbiage wise, it’s taken some extra studying, but it’s a fun new challenge. But guys are getting it and hopefully it translates into winning football."
The first week of OTAs was about getting the young guys up to speed. Now, it will begin to be about getting the rest of the team ready for the challenges that lie ahead.
"These guys came in for the rookie minicamp and haven’t left," Roethlisberger said. "To be able to have the repetition with those guys, to communicate with them, talk to them, whether it’s at a locker or on the field, I’m really excited about the group we’ve got in here."