polamalubeast
11-04-2014, 12:03 PM
For perhaps the first time in his career, Ben Roethlisberger is strongly being considered an NFL MVP candidate following his record feat of back-to-back games with six touchdown passes. He's playing as well as he has at any point in his career and the numbers put him in the same company as Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Andrew Luck and Tom Brady this season.
Roethlisberger's always kept great company, but he's often been pushed aside to the shadows when it comes to the discussion of great quarterbacks despite a resume that has been building towards the Hall of Fame since his rookie season.
The perception of Roethlisberger has never matched the reality, which is that of being one of the best quarterbacks of his era. He is not the pretty pocket passer in the Brady-Manning dominated era of quarterbacks. He plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are known for running the ball and tough defense. He's more "meathead" than "methodical." More cocky than cerebral. Too daring to be durable. He's the ugly duckling of the pack, always picked over for the flashier choices.
That's what made Sunday so fitting. On a day when the football world stopped for Brady-Manning XVI and watched the Steelers retire Joe Greene's number at halftime, Roethlisberger was the story of the week again with six more touchdown passes against rival Baltimore.
During his first five seasons (2004-08), I thought Roethlisberger was clearly the best quarterback in the NFL behind Manning and Brady. He's always played in their shadows, but no one else had that combination of efficient statistics and team success on such a consistent basis in that time. Despite getting an early lead on the two quarterbacks (Eli Manning and Philip Rivers) drafted ahead of him in that famed 2004 class, a record-setting rookie season wasn't enough to outshine Manning's MVP campaign or Brady's completion of a dynasty in New England. But Roethlisberger made a mark with his unique style of making plays under pressure in the league's most vertical offense. His volume numbers were low, branding him a dreaded game manager, but he played a high-risk, high-reward style and was very efficient at doing so, ranking third and second in DVOA his first two years.
Winning a Super Bowl in his second season did not provide the instant credibility we expect from the media today, because Super Bowl XL did not go so well for Roethlisberger. His 22.6 passer rating against Seattle is cited so often you think he never won the game. What's never mentioned is how he converted eight third downs in that game with his arm and legs, including the longest third-down conversion in Super Bowl history: a 37-yard pass to Hines Ward on third-and-28.
Super Bowl aside, Roethlisberger made his first major off-field headline that summer in 2006 with a highly publicized motorcycle accident where he was not wearing a helmet. Add an emergency appendectomy before the regular season started and a concussion midway through and Roethlisberger struggled in the worst season of his career. Some analysts soon began to flock to young quarterbacks in pass-happier offenses like Carson Palmer, Jay Cutler, the emerging Tony Romo in Dallas, or Rivers, who led the Chargers to a No. 1 seed in 2006. Roethlisberger rebounded statistically in 2007 and made it through an injury-plagued 2008 behind what was likely the worst offensive line to ever win a Super Bowl.
read more
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/extra-points/2014/ben-roethlisberger-hall-famer-shadows
Roethlisberger's always kept great company, but he's often been pushed aside to the shadows when it comes to the discussion of great quarterbacks despite a resume that has been building towards the Hall of Fame since his rookie season.
The perception of Roethlisberger has never matched the reality, which is that of being one of the best quarterbacks of his era. He is not the pretty pocket passer in the Brady-Manning dominated era of quarterbacks. He plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are known for running the ball and tough defense. He's more "meathead" than "methodical." More cocky than cerebral. Too daring to be durable. He's the ugly duckling of the pack, always picked over for the flashier choices.
That's what made Sunday so fitting. On a day when the football world stopped for Brady-Manning XVI and watched the Steelers retire Joe Greene's number at halftime, Roethlisberger was the story of the week again with six more touchdown passes against rival Baltimore.
During his first five seasons (2004-08), I thought Roethlisberger was clearly the best quarterback in the NFL behind Manning and Brady. He's always played in their shadows, but no one else had that combination of efficient statistics and team success on such a consistent basis in that time. Despite getting an early lead on the two quarterbacks (Eli Manning and Philip Rivers) drafted ahead of him in that famed 2004 class, a record-setting rookie season wasn't enough to outshine Manning's MVP campaign or Brady's completion of a dynasty in New England. But Roethlisberger made a mark with his unique style of making plays under pressure in the league's most vertical offense. His volume numbers were low, branding him a dreaded game manager, but he played a high-risk, high-reward style and was very efficient at doing so, ranking third and second in DVOA his first two years.
Winning a Super Bowl in his second season did not provide the instant credibility we expect from the media today, because Super Bowl XL did not go so well for Roethlisberger. His 22.6 passer rating against Seattle is cited so often you think he never won the game. What's never mentioned is how he converted eight third downs in that game with his arm and legs, including the longest third-down conversion in Super Bowl history: a 37-yard pass to Hines Ward on third-and-28.
Super Bowl aside, Roethlisberger made his first major off-field headline that summer in 2006 with a highly publicized motorcycle accident where he was not wearing a helmet. Add an emergency appendectomy before the regular season started and a concussion midway through and Roethlisberger struggled in the worst season of his career. Some analysts soon began to flock to young quarterbacks in pass-happier offenses like Carson Palmer, Jay Cutler, the emerging Tony Romo in Dallas, or Rivers, who led the Chargers to a No. 1 seed in 2006. Roethlisberger rebounded statistically in 2007 and made it through an injury-plagued 2008 behind what was likely the worst offensive line to ever win a Super Bowl.
read more
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/extra-points/2014/ben-roethlisberger-hall-famer-shadows