Ben Roethlisberger probably felt like he had a "kick me" sign on his back over the past eight or nine months.
It has become something of a sport for national pundits to throw shade at the Steelers quarterback, making proclamations that he's done. Washed up. Hanging on too long.
That's the way things go when you're a 39-year-old player in a young man's league, even one who enters the 2021 season needing about 1,000 passing yards and 14 touchdowns to move past Dan Marino for sixth-place in NFL history in those categories.
But piling on Roethlisberger has become something of a sport around NFL. Let's face it, playing football at 39 just wasn't the norm for many years, particularly being the starting quarterback of your team.
In fact, if Roethlisberger starts more than half of the Steelers games this season, he'll be one of just a handful of players in NFL history to have done so at 39 or older, something nearly unheard of before Warren Moon did it in 1995 for the Vikings.
Prior to that, the last -- and only -- quarterback to start more than half of his team's games in a season at age 39 was Len Dawson in 1974 when he started eight of the Chiefs' 14 games that season.
Advances in medicine and year-round training, however, have made what once seemed impossible possible. So when Roethlisberger starts the Steelers' regular season opener Sunday in Buffalo to kick off his team-record 18th season, he'll join a recent trend of quarterbacks playing into what used to be considered middle age that began with Moon, moved on to Doug Flutie in 2001 and now has seen Tom Brady, Philip Rivers, Brett Favre, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees also accomplish the feat in recent years.
Also of note is the fact that while Dawson, Moon, Favre and Flutie failed to lead their respective teams to the postseason, Manning, Brady, Brees and Rivers all did. Manning and Brady also won Super Bowls.
It's one of the many things that made taking over as offensive coordinator of the Steelers so attractive for Matt Canada.
"I coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers, for Mike Tomlin, I work for Mr. (Art) Rooney, I’m spending time with a Hall of Fame quarterback… I’ve got a great gig," Canada said Thursday.
Of that group of quarterbacks who have played well into their late 30s of late -- and in some cases well into their 40s -- in several cases they had major injuries that cost them at least a season or a large portion of one at some point in their career.
Brady, for example, suffered a torn ACL in 2008. Manning had neck fusion surgery in 2011 that ended his career with the Colts. Brees underwent a shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum in 2005 that occurred in his final season with the Chargers and led to his signing with the Saints.
For Roethlisberger, surgeries are not something new. He's had several knee injuries over the course of his career. But it was an elbow injury that cost him all but two games of the 2019 season at the age of 37 that had the media pundits circling like buzzards over a fresh kill.
Roethlisberger bounced back to play 15 of the Steelers' 16 regular season games in 2020, sitting out a meaningless regular season finale in Cleveland. He threw for 3,803 yards with 33 touchdown passes -- second-most in his career -- and 10 interceptions.
But he also faded down the stretch, something he attributed to his vigorous offseason workout schedule to rehab his surgically repaired elbow in which three of five tendons had to be reattached.
"My arm feels a lot fresher," Roethlisberger said earlier this summer as training camp kicked off. "At this time last year, I’d thrown thousands of footballs trying to be ready for this. And this year, today was the first time I’ve thrown a ball since minicamp other than throwing to my son in the backyard. It just feels more normal of an offseason, if you will. My arm feels really, really good."
That's been the case throughout camp and going into the regular season.
But critics continue to point to that fade down the stretch, one that culminated with him throwing four interceptions in the Steelers' 48-37 playoff loss to the Browns -- a game in which he also threw four touchdown passes and for 501 yards -- along with his career-low (at least in a full season) 6.3 yards per passing attempt as evidence he's done.
Roethlisberger, however, has had a little bounce in his step and more zip on his passes throughout the training camp process this year. Though he played in only one preseason game, completing 8 of 10 passes for 137 yards and 2 touchdowns in just three possessions against the Lions, things felt good. His passes -- as they had throughout the course of training camp -- had more zip on them.
And he attacked the middle of the field, something he didn't do as often in 2020. Against the Lions, he completed all five of his passes between the hash marks for 105 yards and both touchdowns.
That's where Canada and his new offense come into play.
Using more of a running game, motion and play-action, the Steelers hope to better help Roethlisberger in the passing game.
In fact, the the Steelers were dead last in the NFL using play-action in 2020, using it just 9.6 percent of the time. But that's nothing new, as they've been dead last in play-action usage for the better part of the past decade with Roethlisberger at quarterback.
That is obviously changing. In the preseason, they used jet motion on 60 percent of their snaps and play-action 23 percent of the time, a marked increase for both.
And Roethlisberger has bought into the concepts.
"When you have some play-action, you can’t really do that and throw a short one," Roethlisberger said. "You’ve gotta go down the field a little bit. I’d like to think we’re going to have a good mixture of things. We’re still gonna have plenty of plays where the ball’s getting out quick because that’s smart. You’ve got guys that when they get the ball in their hands amazing things can happen, so get the ball in their hands really quick and let it happen. I really do believe you’ll see a good mixture of things this year.
"We’re under center, we’re play-action, we’re running the ball. That’s what it’s called to do, that’s what I do."
The idea is that mixing things up will keep opponents on their toes. And allow Roethlisberger to have more success, despite a very young offensive group around him. Of the Steelers' 11 presumptive starters Sunday, only Roethlisberger, right guard Trai Turner and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster have more than four years experience in the league. And Smith-Schuster is still just 24 years old.
That's where having an experienced quarterback is such a benefit, even if he had to learn a new offense this year.
"It’d be one thing if I was helping these guys learn an offense that I knew like the back of my hand, but we’re all learning together," Roethlisberger said. "We’re all going through the growing pains together. The only advantage that I have over these guys really is that I’ve been doing it for a while. I kinda know what to expect when I step into a stadium. It was fun even in the preseason, being able to talk to Naj(ee Harris) and some of these guys about how it feels different. 'I know you went to Alabama; I know you went to a big school. There’s something different about stepping into an NFL stadium.'
"As we all know, you go to a preseason game and it’s got a feeling, but you get to the regular season, it has a different feeling too. Everyone’s going to be nervous. The guys, when I ask them, if they tell me they’re not nervous I call them a liar because I’m nervous and I’ve been doing it for a long time. It’s going to be fun.
The key will be keeping him upright behind what is a makeshift offensive line. The Steelers will have four new starters on their line this year, with only Chuks Okorafor returning at right tackle.
Of those 39-year-old quarterback starters, Moon, Favre, Flutie and Favre started all 16 games for their teams that season. Roethlisberger will be tasked with starting as many as 17 games in 2021. Rivers is the only quarterback to start all 16 games and lead his team to the playoffs. Brees started 15 in 2018. Brady and Manning, however, both led their teams to Super Bowl wins despite Brady starting just 12 games during the regular season and Manning starting nine.
Seeing older quarterbacks do that recently definitely played a factor in Roethlisberger wanting to return this season and taking a $5 million pay cut to do so.
"Everybody in the NFL’s got the same goal, and that’s to win a Super Bowl," Roethlisberger said. "So it doesn’t matter if you come from another team, if you’ve been here a long time, or if you’re a rookie."