Pro Football Focus tweeted a video of Ben Roethlisberger playing catch with 1st round draft pick running back Najee Harris on Wednesday during OTAs with the caption, “Big Ben practicing his deep ball.”
The snarky comment is a little out of the ordinary for PFF, which has used stats to harshly criticize the Steeler quarterback (especially this past season).
Teammates and former teammates came to Roethlisberger’s defense including safety Joe Haden and former guard Ramon Foster.
Foster took special exception to the tweet saying, “I get the joke but y’all ain’t in the joking business,” said Foster. “Y’all are in stats and facts.”
At 39, Roethlisberger is being criticized for no longer having a deep ball and PFF jumped on it.
Steve Palazzolo of PFF tells the PM Team it’s the social media team behind the tweet and that they sometimes push the envelope.
Palazzolo says if it was his decision he would not have sent out the tweet and adds they’re not a bias company when it comes to their stats and they stand behind their numbers.
“I think the misconception comes from like ‘oh you guys are mean to the Steelers’ or ‘you hate the Steelers’ but sometimes it’s just the way we tell the story and how that really good rock solid data is pointing us in the right direction,” said Palazzolo.
PFF’s overall rank of Roethlisberger is 69.0.