Former Steelers QB did not initially want replacement to succeed

Former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger made a stunning admission on his Footbahlin' Podcast this week when he said he was not initially rooting for his successor, Kenny Pickett, to succeed early in his career. 

Pickett was actually Roethlisberger's guest on this week's show. 

He admitted the feelings were selfish and based on his competitive nature and apologized to Pickett. 

It was mostly about not wanting to be forgotten right away. 

Here is Roethlisberger on the subject, as transcribed by SteelersNow. 

"I'll be completely honest and I'll be super transparent here and I'm gonna get blasted. I probably shouldn't say this, but I mean, who cares at this point? I wouldn't say that I wanted Kenny to necessarily fail, but like when someone comes to replace you and you're like, I still feel like I had it, like, I hope he doesn't come like ball-out, because then it's like, Ben who? Right?"

Roethlisberger not only apologized, he went on say that as the season wore on he began to root for Pickett more and more. 

“That’s probably the selfishness of me and I feel bad for it, but as the season went on and it got to his third game playing, I was rooting for him. I was excited for you and I wanted you to succeed, I wanted you to win games, I wanted you to get to the playoffs. I feel bad that I felt that early on but I’m glad that I transitioned to the love of rooting for you.”

Roethlisberger was the Steelers' starting quarterback from 2004-22 and is one of the most successful players in franchise history. He holds most Steelers passing records and led the team to three Super Bowl appearances (XL, XLIII and XLV), winning two of them (XL and XLIII). 

He retired following the 2022 season, with the Steelers wasting little time in trying to find his long-term replacement.

The franchise selected Pickett in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft and made him their starting quarterback in Week 4 of the past season. After some initial struggles, Pickett started to find his game in the second half and very nearly helped the Steelers make the playoffs while finishing with a winning record (9-8). His overall numbers were not anything special, but Pickett did have a couple of late game-winning drives (at home against the Las Vegas Raiders and on the road at the AFC North rival Baltimore Ravens) to keep the team in the playoff race. 

The former Pitt signal-caller cut down on turnovers in the second half of the season, nearly eliminating them completely over his final nine games as he started to show some real developmental progress. The Steelers are anticipating him to take a big step forward in his second year come the fall. It sounds like he might have one additional fan in his predecessor.