After the Steelers were blown out by the Cleveland Browns in the Wild Card round of the playoffs quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and center Marukice Pouncey sat down on the sidelines with tears in their eyes.
It appeared to be the end of an era with Pouncey announcing his retirement after the season. But then Big Ben and the Steelers worked out a new deal, with Roethlisberger forfeiting millions of dollars to return for one more year.
The talk around town since has been that Roethlisberger will hang it up after 2021, but Fan Steelers insider Ed Bouchette told the Fan Morning Show on Monday, not so fast.
"I keep saying this, if Ben has a great season you think he's not coming back in 2022," said Bouchette. "This is not a one and done tour de force of Ben saying goodbye around the league, this is another year and if he does great, I think he's gonna want to come back and they'll probably want him back."
Now Roethlisberger's former teammate, Jerome Bettis is saying why not two more years.
The Hall of Fame running back and Super Bowl Champion joined the Jake Asman Show to talk about how long he things Ben can continue to perform at a high level.
Bettis believes if the Steelers get the running game going, Roethlisberger can play well into his 40s.
"I think you can see him another year or another two years, I think he still has ability to move the football down the football field," said Bettis. "You saw in those 11 games when they were undefeated that he did a great job of getting to football to the receivers and letting them make plays, there's no reason to think that he can't do the same things that he was doing but on a very limited stage."
Bettis also says those two extra playing years can only be accomplished if he limits how many times he throws the ball a game.
"If you ask him to throw the ball 20 to 25 times, I think he can do that for another two years but if you're asking him to throw the football for 40 times a game then yes, this will probably be his last year because physically I don' think him at that age is going to be able to do that consistently for 17 weeks and then ask him to do it for a second year," said Bettis.
