From the time he was selected in the first round of the 2004 NFL Draft up until his retirement in 2021, Ben Roethlisberger was the face of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Big Ben’s 18-year run in Pittsburgh included six Pro Bowl appearances and two Super Bowl titles. He’s going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer and will go down as one of the greatest players in franchise history.
But it became clear during his final season in the NFL that Roethlisberger’s deteriorating skillset was going to lead to retirement.
Once Roethlisberger did opt to call it quits, the Steelers had to go in another direction. That included selecting former Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
For Big Ben, passing the torch on to Pickett wasn’t easy. He admitted such over the weekend when the former Steelers QB had Pickett on his “Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger” podcast.
“I’ll be completely honest, I’ll be super transparent here, and I’m going to get blasted. I probably shouldn’t say this, but who cares at this point? I wouldn’t say that I wanted Kenny to necessarily fail, but when someone comes to replace you, I still feel like I had it, I hope he doesn’t come ball out. Because then it’s like, Ben who?”
Ben Roethlisberger to Kenny Pickett
That’s some pretty damning stuff right there from Big Ben. His ego didn’t want to see a young quarterback have success because it would have made Steelers fans forget about his brilliant 18-year run with the organization.
On one hand, that’s just not a good look. On the other hand, Roethlisberger was adult enough to admit it while expanding on his thought process some.
“Early on I didn’t want you to succeed because you followed me up — I didn’t want it to happen. I think that’s probably the selfishness of me, and I feel bad for it,” Roethlisberger told Pickett.
Big Ben did say that he started rooting more and more for Pickett as the youngster continued playing during his rookie season. “I wanted you to succeed, I wanted you to win games, I wanted you to go in the playoffs,” the retired QB noted.
A product of the University of Pittsburgh, Pickett was overwhelmed when the Steelers made him a first-round pick back in 2022. Despite some poor individual numbers, he did lead the team to a 7-5 record in 12 starts. Pittsburgh was 2-3 in the five games Pickett did not start.
Related: Find out where Kenny Pickett ranks among NFL starting QBs
Kenny Pickett appreciates Ben Roethlisberger’s support
“It means the world,” Pickett said of having Big Ben’s support. Individual egos aside, it is in the best interest of both for Pickett to succeed in Pittsburgh. Roethlisberger played all 18 of his seasons with the Steelers. It’s the only NFL team that he knows. There is certainly something built in behind the scenes between the two entities despite some of the late-career issues that came up.
As for Pickett, he enters his sophomore season as the unquestioned QB1 in Pittsburgh. The team just signed Mitchell Trubisky to a contract extension valued at backup money.
Everyone knows that it’s Pickett’s time to shine under Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh. And he now has the support of one of the best to ever do it for the franchise.