Hardly anything in life is black or white. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger can be considered the greatest Steelers QB of all-time and can also be done in 2021.
It's a tough pill to swallow, seeing the man who's led the Steelers for the past 17 plus seasons show through the first four weeks of the season he simply doesn't have it.
He's helped lead the Steelers to three Super Bowls, winning two.
He's the team's all-time passing leader with 61,381 yards and reached a milestone 400th touchdown on Sunday.
Those 61,381 passing yards put him 6th all-time in the NFL.
He is a guaranteed Hall of Famer.
But with all that said, how much longer can Mike Tomlin continue to put Roethlisberger out there?
He can't move around anymore and is basically a statue in the pocket, he has to get the ball out quickly when his struggling offensive line allows pressure and when he does have time he still gets the ball out quickly, sometimes missing wide-open receivers.
Would backups Mason Rudolph or Dwayne Haskins offer any sort of relief?
Not likely, but they would do worse than Roethlisberger.
So how much more time do you give him? One more game? Play till the bye?
We wrote last week how the situation with Big Ben isn't going to well with him.
If he can't go anymore, he needs to be benched or maybe placed on the Reserve/Injured list as an excuse.
Yes he's given Steelers fans a lot to cheer about since 2004, and he helped put Pittsburgh back on the map, but he isn't owed more changes than any other struggling quarterback.
If Mason Rudolph was playing these past four games and putting up the same numbers, would Tomlin stick with him? Hard to say but I doubt it.
Roethlisberger deserves the same treatment. He's made millions and millions of dollars getting paid for his job, and he just can't do it at a level to help the Steelers win anymore.
