That's some crazy revisionist history. Ben in his prime was no worse than a top-6 QB in a historically great grouping of QBs: Brady, Brees, Rodgers, P. Manning, Roethlisberger, Rivers. Brady and P. Manning are in contention for the best QB of all time, so being a notch below them is no real knock on Ben- almost all HoF QBs are a notch below them. And although Brees has better counting stats than Ben (playing in a dome in a pass always offense works wonders for your stats), I would have taken Ben over him given Ben's physicality and ability to extend the play and improvise. Plus, while no one ever doubted Ben's ability to play in the league, Brees washed out of the Chargers before resurrecting his career in NO. Nevertheless, while I think it's debatable, I can understand ranking Ben below Brees (who does have historically great stats). While I think prime Rodgers was better than prime Ben, I think most would give the edge to prime Ben over prime Rivers. So, at worst, prime Ben ranked behind the three statistically greatest QBs of all time and Aaron Rodgers (a sure-fire HoFer), and tied with Rivers, a likely HoFer.
Also, when comparing stats, remember that Brees, Manning, and Brady have thrown thousands more passes than Ben:
https://www.pro-football-reference.c...att_career.htm. Give Ben 2,000 more passing attempts and he probably has 500 TD passes by now. Rodgers is so impressive in part because he has beaten Ben in career TDs with significantly fewer attempts- his TD % is markedly better than the rest of his peers'.
The "very good" tier at this time (mid -00s through -mid 10s) would have included the likes of Joe Flacco in his prime. Remember the eternal "is Flacco elite" debate? There was never any similar debate about Ben. Ben was certainly elite in his prime and essentially no one disputed that at the time. Ben is certainly a Hall of Famer, and I'd argue still in the top half of QBs in the league. All things considered, Ben is probably in the top 25 best QBs who have ever played in the NFL. If the Steelers can get another QB of Roethlisberger's caliber after Ben retires, then they'll be set for another 20 years.