Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has averaged 21.9 touchdown passes per season over his ten year career. Should he do that again in 2014, the two-time Super Bowl winner could pass some pretty impressive names on the list of all-time touchdown pass leaders.
Big Ben currently stands at 219 career touchdown passes. That number does not reflect postseason numbers.
If he can hit his average this upcoming season he would pass retired QBs Steve Young (232), Donovan McNabb (234), George Blanda (236), Jim Kelly (237) and Len Dawson (239).
Of that group, only McNabb is not in the Hall of Fame.
In terms of career passing yardage, Roethlisberger currently sits at 34,105 yards. For his ten year career, that averages out to just over 3,400 passing yards per season.
Should he hit his average in this category in 2014, he’ll pass more impressive quarterbacks including Jim Hart, Jim Everett and again, Jim Kelly. Should he get to just 35,000 yards in 2014, he’ll be just the 20th quarterback in NFL History to reach that milestone.
Keep in mind that Roethlisberger has seldom been allowed to throw the ball at the rates of a Drew Brees, Peyton Manning or Tom Brady and that is often held against him. Just this morning I saw a ranking of the top 10 NFL quarterbacks on the Cover32 website. It listed Roethlisberger behind those I just mentioned as well as Cam Newton, Tony Romo and Colin Kaepernick.
Roethlisberger himself will tell you it’s not about numbers for him. It’s about winning. I’m sure the other nine members of that top ten would say the same thing but only a couple of them have actually proven it.
Should Roethlisberger remain healthy, and that’s never an easy thing to do, he could put up some extremely good numbers for a guy that isn’t known as one of the top stats guys in the NFL.
Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @steeldad and follow the website at @SCBlitz. He can be heard weekly on Trib-Live Radio talking Steelers and is a blogger for ESPN 970 in Pittsburgh.
5 comments
I’m constantly amazed at how underrated Ben is. I really hope when all is said and done people really appreciated how special he has been.
I’d love to see Ben get at least 1 more ring where he just dominates the game and wins the MVP award.
Several things factor into Ben being underrated: Not a Big Fantasy Stats guy, Does not throw the ball about 30-35 times per game, doesn’t hit 4,000 yards every year and etc., etc. But all that means nothing to me it really does not and if other people fell differently then tough luck I don’t give a crap. Go back to America’s game of the 2008 Steelers and the comment by troy is what defines Ben: “He’s not like a Tom Brady or a Peyton Manning but we don’t ask him to be that” Ben is who he is and that’s fine by everybody in the city of Pittsburgh. Now if the coaches would let Ben run the show the Steelers would probably win a few more games then they have the past 2 seasons. Your best player is Ben so let him run the offense for about 95% of the time and have Haley contribute the other 5%. Does that seem fair to everybody?
Vittorio, We finally agree on something, if the Steelers are smart enough to keep Haley even more out of his way like 100% then we have a chance to go somewhere.
Bob Graff I’m not he only person who wants it that way. You can ask Mark Madden that question and he would tell you the same thing I said. A perfect example of a team using the No-Huddle Offense to great success are the 90’s Bills. Now granted the D adjusted to what there offense was doing but never the less it’s in the same region. Ben has great success in the No-Huddle which prevents the D from adjusting. Now there are a few things that need to be sorted out: 1.The OL and Mike Munchak, 2.Wheaton, 3.The draft picks and how well they are used, 4.How well does the D play during the Season. If those questions get answered and have a positive impact then the Steelers will not only win more than they have in the past 2 season but they will have a great shot at both the Division and the Playoffs.
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