When the Pittsburgh Steelers selected future Hall of Fame quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger , in the first round of the 2004 NFL Draft, he was expected to be the guy right away. Tommy Maddox was the starting signal-caller until he injured his elbow in Week 2 of the 2004 regular season. That opened the door for the rookie and as they say, The rest is history. Roethlisberger led the team to a 15-1 regular season record while going a record-setting 14-0 in his first year as the starter. It’s easy to look back now and say Maddox’s non-surgical injury to his elbow led to a new era of winning football, but not everyone was too thrilled at the time.
Gene Collier of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recently had a conversation with Hall of Fame guard, Alan Faneca . They discussed the current state of the Steelers and the similarities and differences that the retired offensive lineman sees between back in 2004 when Roethlisberger came on board, and the current 2022 roster with rookie, Kenny Pickett at the helm. It’s an interesting back story to uncover because Faneca was vocal years ago about not being all too stoked about then-rookie, Roethlisberger leading the offense:
“Exciting?” Faneca responded in 2004 when asked about Roethlisberger becoming the starting quarterback. “No, it’s not exciting. Do you want to go work with some little young kid who’s just out of college?”
The main difference is one may have originally expected Pittsburgh to start very slow after the quarterback change 18 years ago. Faneca looks back and knows the talent on Bill Cowher‘s team was so deep that it allowed Roethlisberger to ease in and instead of it being at transitional period, the team went all the way to host an AFC Championship Game. The modern-day Steelers, however, are very much in a rebuilding phase according him:
“You hate to use the word, the ‘T’ word, but it’s a bit of a transition year,” Faneca said to Collier. “They’re takin’ their lumps and you just gotta learn from them.”
Those ‘lumps’ he’s referring to happen to all young players regardless of talent, but the key is how a player responds.
“Every young player, regardless of position, is going to come in and make mistakes,” he said. “Even if you play at a Pro Bowl, All-Pro level, you’re still going to make the occasional mistake that the guy that’s been there a couple of years is not. Those lumps have to be taken and they’re just most visible when you’ve got the ball in your hand most of the time. You’ve just gotta kind of grin and bear it and move on.”
Pickett has thrown just three touchdowns to his eight interceptions. Six of those turnovers came in two games. Faneca recalled how some of the under performing teams he was on bounced back after slow starts as the 2022 Steelers sit at 3-7:
“It’s hard. It’s not an easy thing to do. You gotta focus on yourself. How can I make things better? Then, how can we be better as a group? If everybody does that, that’s when you’ll start seeing tighter games, better results, that’s how you turn the tide.”
It is interesting to get the perspective from a franchise legend as he watches the team struggling and hanging around the bottom of the AFC. There are ways to flip the script as he described to Collier. With that said, it’s no time to panic or label Pickett as a ‘bust.’ One of the best players in Steelers’ history wasn’t excited for some kid out of Miami (Ohio) and look how that turned out when it was all said and done.
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