PITTSBURGH — Ben Roethlisberger turned 39 in March and is entering his 18th season with the Steelers, but he does have something in common with the rookies who are almost half his age. Roethlisberger in many ways is starting over and learning new offensive terminology for the first time since his rookie season in 2004.
“There is a lot of new,” Roethlisberger said Tuesday afternoon following practice. “For someone who has had a similar offense for a long time, verbiage-wise, it’s taken some extra studying, but it’s a fun new challenge. Hopefully, it translates into winning football.”
Roethlisberger is playing for his fifth offensive coordinator since he entered the league. He played for Ken Whisenhunt for his first three seasons and subsequently had Bruce Arians, Todd Haley and Randy Fichtner before Matt Canada was hired as Fichtner’s replacement in January.
On the previous occasions, the offense was tweaked, but the terminology remained basically the same. Canada, however, is installing his offense with his verbiage and everyone, including the franchise quarterback, is making the adjustment this spring.
“It’s definitely harder when you’ve had a similar offense for 17 years,” Roethlisberger said. “Then, all of a sudden, something that looks the same but is called something completely different, it’s very difficult and a big challenge. But that’s the game of football — learning new things and new challenges. Coach Canada’s offense hopefully will be a good one. We need to execute the plays he calls and hopefully we’ll be better off than we were last year.”
Learning a new offense is one of the many changes the Steelers are undergoing after their disappointing finish to the 2020 season. After starting the season 11-0, they lost five of their final six, including a 48-37 home playoffs loss to the Browns, which prompted coach Mike Tomlin to fire Fichtner and offensive line coach Shaun Sarrett.
Even Roethlisberger’s return was in doubt for weeks after the season ended. He told the front office immediately after the season ended that he wanted to return, but his new contract was not finalized until the first week of March.
Roethlisberger was set to count $41.2 million against the salary cap this year before he and the Steelers agreed to a new deal that will pay him $14 million and count $26.2 million toward the cap. In essence, he took a $5 million pay reduction, which he said was his idea.
“I told them I want to help the team out however I can,” Roethlisberger said. “I went to them and told them I would do whatever I could to help them sign the guys who will help us win football games. I’ve been extremely blessed to play this game for a long time. That was one of the reasons I wanted to come back. We obviously had a great defense and some amazing weapons on offense. I wanted to come back and be a part of what I thought was a special football team, which everyone seems to be overlooking, which is kind of cool, too. In order to do that and help get guys here, I felt it was necessary to do that.”
Due to pandemic-related salary cap issues, the Steelers lost seven starters from last season, including four on offense, but Roethlisberger’s receiving corps remains intact. JuJu Smith-Schuster, like Roethlisberger, left money on the table and re-signed with the Steelers after his market was flat in free agency.
Smith-Schuster will lead a young but talented group that also includes Chase Claypool, Diontae Johnson, James Washington and Ray-Ray McCloud.
“I was really excited to get JuJu back,” Roethlisberger said. “I felt like I was in his ear and in coach Tomlin’s ear a lot during that process the last 12 or 24 hours of JuJu signing back here. To have a familiar face and a guy that brings so much to this team ... is there a guy in the NFL that on third-and-medium-to-short you want the ball in his hands as much as JuJu? I don’t know if I can think of one. The passion he gives to this city and to this team to help us win is awesome. As young as he is, he’s the leader of that group. That is a young receiver group.”
Roethlisberger hasn’t just been present at OTAs, he’s been laying the groundwork for a smooth transition to Canada’s offense away from the facility, too. He mentioned Tuesday he had the receivers to his house over the Memorial Day weekend. Before that, he took the rookies out to dinner shortly after they arrived in town. He even said Canada has been to his home to go over how things are going to change.
“We’ve had quite a few communications,” Roethlisberger said. “He’s come over, we’ve talked. I told him that I know this is your offense, and he’s like, ‘No, no, this is our offense.’ But I’m like, ‘No, it’s yours.’ And I’m just really trying to do everything I can to be open to the new challenge and say, ‘OK, I’m learning. OK got it, got it.’
“If something is confusing or something doesn’t quite make sense, I say, ‘Talk to me, tell me how I can better understand this or how I can learn this or learn the formation names, or what is your trick to learning things?’ We just have been constantly communicating. And he has been really good about it.”
