Todd Olszewski/Getty Images Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers motions from the line of scrimmage against the Baltimore Ravens on November 1, 2020.
It’s not often that NFL Twitter is firmly in the corner of former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. But after Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus tweeted that he’d “be in support of a HoF standard that excluded ALL of Stafford, Big Ben, Eli Manning, Rivers, Romo and Matt Ryan,” Steelers fans and non-Steelers fans alike came out in support of Big Ben, who, by most measures, should not be mentioned alongside any of the half-dozen other quarterbacks that Monson highlighted.
I’d be in support of a HoF standard that excluded ALL of Stafford, Big Ben, Eli Manning, Rivers, Romo and Matt Ryan.
The issue is that the standard has already been set lower than that, which makes it inherently unfair to start drawing the line there right now.
Sam Monson: ‘The 1st Tier of QBs’ Doesn’t Include Ben Roethlisberger
In a subsequent tweet, Monson argued that “the 1st tier of QBs over this past generation is unquestionably P(eyton) Manning, Brady, Brees, Rodgers…. Then there’s a gap…. That’s the line.”
But because “the standard has already been set lower than that, (it’s) inherently unfair to start drawing the line there right now,” he concludes.
@PP_Rich_Hill The 1st tier of QBs over this past generation is unquestionably P Manning, Brady, Brees, Rodgers.
Then there’s a gap.
That’s the line.
It’s a fair statement to say that quarterbacks should be judged relative to those who played in the same era, especially when one considers how passing numbers have become increasingly inflated in recent decades.
But is the line between Roethlisberger and everyone but Tom Brady really that clear? As noted by Steelers fan Brian Nau, Roethlisberger has both the stats and the winning pedigree, highlighted by three Super Bowl appearances and a pair of Super Bowl victories.
@PFF_Sam This a Ben hate tweet without doing any reasearch
Ben wasn’t good in Super Bowl 40 but they’re not playing in that game without his 3 playoff game preformances. Super Bowl 43 speaks for itself
And he went up against Peyton & Brady for 14 yrs
Or to put it another way:
@PFF_Sam 721 QBs since the Superbowl era.
5th in Passing Yards
8th in TD
7th Passer rating
5th wins
4th Game winning drives
3rd 4th Qr cimebacks
5th completioms
6th ypa
1st player to go 500 yards 3 times
107 games with 100 rating is 7th
Best of his era? No. All time? Up there.
Or another:
@PFF_Sam You want a standard where a 2x SB winner & top 5 in wins, yards, TDs not make the list in Big Ben?
Who has the second most game winning drives ever, behind Peyton? Who has the most 500 yard games in NFL history? Only guy who put together back to back 6 TD games?
Disgraceful.
Meanwhile, Rivers and Romo never once took their teams to the Super Bowl, while Eli Manning is elevated by having two Super Bowl wins over Brady, yet his career record is just 117-117 and he has an 84.1 career passer rating. This as compared to Big Ben, whose career record is 165-81-1 with a 93.5 career passer rating.
Twitter user Justin Annesi also makes a good point about iconic plays, of which Big Ben has a few, including some that came during his Super Bowl winning seasons, like the shoestring tackle that helped preserve the victory over Peyton Manning’s No. 1 seeded Colts en route to Super Bowl XL. And the corner of the end zone touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes that won Super Bowl XLIII.
@PFF_Sam Agreed outside of Ben, maybe Eli. Super Bowls aren’t everything but both those guys made iconic plays to win their teams championships (being like top 8 in every major passing category doesn’t hurt either)
A lot of people like to point out that Roethlisberger played very poorly in his first Super Bowl, posting a 22.6 passer rating, per Pro Football Reference (PFR). But in the three games that got the Steelers to the Big Game, his passer ratings were 148.7 (at Cincinnati), 95.3 (at Indianapolis) and 124.9 (at Denver).
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Nor did he play his entire career with stellar defenses, or even capable offensive lines, as noted by Twitter user Elton Puka:
@PFF_Sam Don’t put Big Ben in that category with those guys. He is arguably a top 15 QB in NFL history. He is a sure no question first ballot HOFer. No question whatsoever. He checks every box. And I hate the Steeler. He was very dominant in his Prime With the worst oLine in the league
Moreover, some of his peak seasons came when the Steelers were at their lowest as a team, yet never finished below .500 because of Big Ben’s outsized efforts. That includes the 2013 season, when Roethlisberger delivered what former Colts general manager Bill Polian described as one of the best-ever performances by a quarterback in a 34-27 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in London.
PFR’s QB Hall of Fame Monitor
It’s also instructive to take a look at PFR’s QB Hall of Fame Monitor, which is “designed to estimate a player’s chances of making the Pro Football Hall of Fame using AV, Pro Bowls, All-Pros, championships, and various stat milestones.”
By this measure, Ryan, Roethlisberger and Rivers all slot in below the average Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback, but well ahead of many QBs who are already in the Hall, with the next closest comps being Bart Starr, Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, Dan Fouts and Kurt Warner, all of whom rank above Eli Manning.
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Twitter Rushes to Ben Roethlisberger’s Defense After Analyst’s HOF Exclusion Tweet