Big Ben done for the season

[Blueboy]

For those of us who've stashed Mason Rudolph in SF leagues, time to get the hype train started. https://www.steelers.com/news/tomlin-st ... hlisberger

How badly does this impact PIT's skill positions? Vance McDonald could get a nice bump after Sunday's game. What are the odds that Roethlisberger calls it a career now?

[bjd5211]

This could be a win for James Washington too due to their chemistry from college. Looking forward to seeing Rudolph get a shot, I stashed him in most of my SF leagues expecting this sort of situation to come up eventually.

[JoshGordonsDealer]

I have to think it’s a downgrade for most skill position guys, but not a huge one.

[ArrylT]

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/pittsburgh- ... rger-3595/

Contract wise it is unlikely (imo) that the Steelers have an out before 2021 - my guess is he'll be back for 2020. The question will be twofold

(a) Will Rudolph play well enough to be the heir (similar to Lamar Jackson pushing Flacco out)

or

(b) Will Rudolph bomb bad enough the Steelers will be in position to draft a QB in 2020

Either way I'm going to predict he'll be back in 2020, but with a QB breathing down his neck, so he'll be in Flacco / Eli territory where you'll want him only as a QB2/3. This is not a career ending injury imo - just combined with his age makes it more questionable than normal. We shall see though - it is way too early in the process to do anything more than guesstimate. Watch and see what signals come out of the Steelers management first.

[Phaded]

The Steelers were already looking pretty rough, this puts their situation into pretty dire circumstances.

[Vcize]

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/pittsburgh- ... rger-3595/

Contract wise it is unlikely (imo) that the Steelers have an out before 2021 - my guess is he'll be back for 2020. The question will be twofold

(a) Will Rudolph play well enough to be the heir (similar to Lamar Jackson pushing Flacco out)

or

(b) Will Rudolph bomb bad enough the Steelers will be in position to draft a QB in 2020

Either way I'm going to predict he'll be back in 2020, but with a QB breathing down his neck, so he'll be in Flacco / Eli territory where you'll want him only as a QB2/3. This is not a career ending injury imo - just combined with his age makes it more questionable than normal. We shall see though - it is way too early in the process to do anything more than guesstimate. Watch and see what signals come out of the Steelers management first.

I think he was more asking with Big Ben's constant retirement consideration if this combined with his age is enough for him to just call it a career, moreso than Pitt just ditching him.

Regardless your a/b scenarios make sense. They are already 0-2 and with a strong QB class next year it seems likely they will be in position to grab one.

[ArrylT]

I think Ben Roethlisberger will want to play next year - but that is based off the theory that most players want to play until they can play no more - and this was not an injury that I think will interfere with him doing so. So I fully expect him to want to return for 2020 so long as the Steelers want him back. What he does if they decide to move on could change that - he might not want to play for another team, especially if he had to compete for a job rather than get a starter job from the get-go.

[Ice]

Tough loss.

QB injuries are piling up at a rapid pace. Ben will probably come back if he heals properly but it is just conjecture at this point. He has talked of retirement quite a bit the past few years.

[Hjorimir]

Big Ben has flirted with retiring a few times now, so it will be interesting to see if he just decides to hang it up.

[Forza_Azzurri]

I think Big Ben is done. I’m sure this is going to require major rehab, and he’s been on the fence for a while about retiring. I just don’t see him rehabbing so hard just for one last year.

[Blueboy]

Rudolph looked fairly good -- better than the average backup certainly -- versus the Seahawks. Liked him coming out. With the benefit of such a good O-line I could see him playing pretty well this season and forcing a tough decision.

[Ice]

Rudolph looked fairly good -- better than the average backup certainly -- versus the Seahawks. Liked him coming out. With the benefit of such a good O-line I could see him playing pretty well this season and forcing a tough decision.

Agree. Rudolph certainly has upside. He improved every year in college and won a few awards along the way. Think he was the 6th QB drafted in his class which saw 5 go in the first round. Now that he is the starter Rosen is the only one of that group that is a backup and he was traded already.

[FantasyFreak]

There are rumblings that it's a career ender.

[abloom]

I think Rudolph looked good enough on Sunday. Owning Vance I'm looking forward to the rest of the season, seems like Rudolph was looking for him.

I'd easily decrease expectations for just about everyone there, but the injury to Conner will also compound some of this. We may see passing volume increase.

[Phaded]

Not that I wish injury upon anyone, but I won't be remotely sad if this leads to his retirement.