Maybe through the preseason and the first victory against the Buffalo Bills you had delusions. Perhaps your brain got twisted and distorted into giving reality the boot.
But after what happened against the Las Vegas Raiders you can't anymore. More to the point, the people in charge of making decisions can't anymore.
It's time to really get down to figuring out this long game at quarterback.
Hell, I hope they have some kind of plan over there on South Water St. And not just some kind of plan, but the kind of plan that is pretty much in cement.
See, in the early going (the preseason and that Bills game) perhaps some of us were fooled into thinking this might not be the swan song for Ben Roethlisberger. After all, he looked sleeker, kind of nimble and the Steelers shot out to a 1-0 start to the season as they fended off a team many have earmarked to make a deep AFC Playoffs run.
Vintage Ben some might have even called it.
But then came Week 2.
Was it just me or did it look like Ben aged about 10 years in seven days?
Maybe it was just me, I don't know.
What can't be argued is that Roethlisberger got his teeth kicked in against the Raiders as he was hit 10 times and hobbles into Week 3 against the Bengals with some sort of pectoral injury that would serve to limit him.
About that big picture … You think Big Ben is going to make it through this year? I have my doubts.
But let's say he does. Do you think he's got 17 more of these in him at age 40 next season? With that line attempting to protect him? Heck no. Not even a slight chance.
That's why this whole "Life After Ben" roadmap really better be laid out and laid out firmly right now.
I will just put it bluntly: The Pittsburgh Steelers will need a new starting quarterback at the beginning of the 2022 season, if not sooner. With that, I would hope people such as Art Rooney II and Kevin Colbert have a steadfast strategy for the next signalcaller. This can't be some fly-by-night proposition anymore or a "let's wait and see what Ben wants to do" situation.
Uh, no.
This is it.
It is clear his body is simply breaking down as Father Time has Big Ben pinned up against the ropes and is delivering combination after combination. Pretty soon if Ben doesn't say "No Mas" someone must say it for him. And that time will be at the end of this season.
Is their plan to go with Mason Rudolph? I don't know. I don't love it but could see where that's the direction they'd go.
Is their plan to let Mason Rudolph and Dwayne Haskins battle it out in camp next season? Maybe. That wouldn't be a terrible idea.
Could the Steelers potentially draft-and-start their next guy immediately? Seems like a longshot, but if the player fits, I can think of worse plans.
All I know is this: Roethlisberger is a football hero. For me, the best quarterback in the history of the franchise. He's a legend and a Hall of Famer.
But the Steelers cannot let him talk them into another season after this one.
His body is crumbling.
He's falling apart.
Of no fault of his own, he becoming rickety and unstable. Getting old is a bitch, man.
Father Time is getting close to giving him the 10-count and I hope the organization has a true plan for Life After Ben this time.
