Former Pittsburgh Steelers’ star quarterback Ben Roethlisberger made a stunning admission about his successor, Kenny Pickett.
Roethlisberger retired after the 2021 season, following an 18-year career that was spent entirely with the Steelers. With the No. 20 selection in last year’s draft, the Steelers took their next hopeful franchise QB in Pickett.
During the latest edition of his “Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger” podcast (h/t Curt Popejoy of Steelers Wire), the two-time Super Bowl champion surprisingly admitted he was hopeful that Pickett wouldn’t succeed in the early stages of his NFL career:
“I’m gonna be sure transparent about this. I’m gonna get blasted, I probably shouldn’t say this. Early on, I didn’t want you to succeed…That’s selfishness in me and I feel sorry for that.”
Roethlisberger was extremely limited with his arm during his final NFL season in 2021. Though Pittsburgh went 9-7-0 in games he started, Roethlisberger tossed just 3,740 yards and 22 touchdowns against 10 interceptions.
Roethlisberger also had a quarterback rating of just 86.8, his lowest in a full season since his second Super Bowl-winning season with the organization in 2008 (80.1). But the Steelers’ stingy defense and the work of rookie running back Najee Harris helped Pittsburgh narrowly squeak into the postseason with a 9-7-1 record.
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Pittsburgh, however, was no match for Patrick Mahomes and his Kansas City Chiefs in the Wild Card Round. In what was Roethlisberger’s final NFL game, the Chiefs soundly defeated the Steelers 42-21.
In his first NFL season, the 24-year-old Pickett completed 63.0 percent of his pass attempts for 2,404 yards and seven touchdowns against nine interceptions.
