It’s time we have a frank conversation about Big Ben Roethlisberger. It’s time to cut ties with him in fantasy football, in pretty much all leagues. This week he has a bad matchup, but it goes far deeper than that. Ben Roethlisberger hinted at retirement before the season, and it probably would have been a good move for him to do so. At this point, it isn’t advisable for you to start him this week in your fantasy football leagues, and maybe not at all… ever again.
Ben Roethlisberger is on pace to have an all-time bad season by his standards. His interception rate is his highest in over a decade (3.6%) and his almost 1% higher than his career norm. Ben’s touchdown rate is a massive career low for him at 3.2%. He usually throws a touchdown once every twenty passes, this year, that’s just about one every 31 passes. That puts his rate as two touchdowns for every three he’s thrown, on average, in his career. His 6.9 yards per pass attempt seems nice, but it will be his worst, by far, for his career. For those of you playing along at home, that’s bad.
To put that in perspective, his touchdown rate? Lower than Brian Hoyer’s career mark (3.4%). That interception rate is higher than Ryan Fitzpatrick’s career mark (3.45%). His yards per attempt is lower than Jeff Garcia (6.95). Like I said, it’s not good.
Even if it was a good year for Roethlisberger, this is a bad matchup. The Bengals rock a top-six defense at stifling opposing quarterback fantasy football production. So far this year they’ve stopped… wait. Joe Flacco, Deshaun Watson, DeShone Kizer and Tyrod Taylor. Hm… okay, maybe they were lit up by Aaron Rodgers and played mostly garbage. Still, in 2017, Big Ben Roethlisberger qualifies. His season high is 17.5 fantasy points, and he hasn’t topped 265 yards in a game without five interceptions. He’s just plain bad, and the offense is not the same high-flying Steelers we’ve come to expect. Keep him firmly on your benches this week, there’s nothing but paid to be had by starting… check this out… Little Ben Roethlisberger in week seven.
Nailed it.
