Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger says that if spring practices were taking place next month, he would be there.
In an interview with Ed Bouchette of The Athletic, Roethlisberger stated, “I was going to be ready to go for OTAs and the minicamps. That was going to be the plan. Now I don’t know how much I was going to do, I don’t know if I was going to be doing team stuff or stuff like that, but I would have been definitely going to be out there ready to go.”
The NFL canceled all offseason team workouts due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At this time, it has not been reported as to how teams will be instructing their players to proceed with isolated workouts in the coming months.
Roethlisberger’s rehabilitation has not been affected by Pennsylvania’s shelter-in-place order. He has a home gym where he rehabs and does his workouts.
Using a football that contains a data-recording computer microchip, Roethlisberger rehabs his elbow by throwing the football. The chip reads data like spin rate, velocity, and spiral efficacy.
“It’s neat to have those tools because in your own mind you say, ‘Ok, that felt 50 percent, that felt 75 percent,’” said Roethlisberger. “I mean, you can do that, but it’s hard to really tell. We have this data, and it’s making it easier and making it able to read these throws. Pretty much every throw we have data on. Right now, I do like a 20-throw warmup at 10 yards, and then we back up, and we do 10 throws at 15, 10 throws at 20, 10 at 25 yards. I’m throwing it right now off the numbers and data, probably right around 60 percent. That’s just me choosing to be at that number.”
“I know I can let it go and throw, but what’s the point, why? There’s no reason to throw as hard as I can right now.”
Not that Roethlisberger would say anything other than he’ll be ready, but this appears to be more good news for the Steelers.
