Ben Roethlisberger was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2004. He would take over the starting role that season and win his first 14 starts. His playstyle at that time could be described as run around until someone got open deep, then throw the ball. From the beginning of his career, deep passes were a huge part of Ben Roethlisberger’s game. It shows up well in his statistics, as the years where he had the best stats were years when he had a great deep threat, players like Mike Wallace and Martavis Bryant.
After his injury in 2019, plenty of analysts have questioned or criticized Ben Roethlisberger’s arm strength, and while there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to show he can still throw the ball downfield, I wanted to look at the numbers to see how much his approach has changed.