The Pittsburgh Steelers have been caught in a kind of NFL purgatory ever since Ben Roethlisberger hung up his cleats after the 2021 season. They’ve remained competitive-never quite bottoming out-but haven’t been able to break through when it matters most.
A regular-season threat? Sure.
A postseason force? Not lately.
And now, as the team’s playoff win drought inches closer to a decade, one former Steeler is pointing the finger squarely at Big Ben-not just for how things ended, but for how they were managed along the way.
Steven Nelson, a nine-year NFL veteran and former Steelers cornerback, didn’t mince words in a recent episode of The Corner Suite Podcast. The title said it all: “What Happened to the Pittsburgh Steelers?” And according to Nelson, the answer starts with how the franchise handled the final years of their two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback.
“I was upset because they let Ben dictate keeping that roster together moving forward,” Nelson said. “They didn’t kick me out of Pittsburgh, they tried to betray me.
They tried to trade me and they tried to make me take a pay cut-for who? Big Ben.
A guy that was declining in his career.”
That’s a strong statement, and it taps into a broader frustration that’s been bubbling beneath the surface in Pittsburgh for a while. Nelson’s argument centers on the idea that the Steelers prioritized keeping Roethlisberger around-at a steep financial cost-over preserving a defense that was among the league’s best.
Let’s rewind to 2019. That Steelers defense was a problem for opposing offenses.
They led the league with 38 takeaways, flying around the field and creating chaos. Even after Roethlisberger went down in Week 2 with a season-ending elbow injury, the team managed to scrap its way to an 8-8 finish.
It was the kind of defensive unit you could build around-fast, aggressive, and opportunistic.
Nelson believes that group could’ve been the foundation for a true contender, but cap constraints-largely tied up in Roethlisberger’s contract-forced the team to make tough decisions. One of those decisions?
Parting ways with Nelson in 2021 after trade efforts didn’t pan out. From his perspective, it felt like a betrayal, especially considering the circumstances.
Now, it’s worth noting that Roethlisberger did take a pay cut ahead of his final season in 2021 to help the team remain competitive. That’s a fact Nelson didn’t address, but it adds a layer of complexity to the conversation.
Roethlisberger’s final deal, signed in 2019, was a two-year, $68 million extension-rewarding a quarterback who had just led the league with 5,129 passing yards. At the time, it made sense.
He was still producing at a high level, and letting him walk would’ve been a tough sell to a fan base that had watched him define an era.
But that elbow injury changed everything. Roethlisberger was never quite the same after that, and while he had moments of brilliance, the Steelers struggled to find consistent success in the postseason. The window that might’ve been open with that 2019 defense quietly closed, and the team has been trying to pry it back open ever since.
What Nelson’s comments really do is shine a light on the delicate balance NFL franchises have to strike between loyalty and long-term planning. Roethlisberger earned the right to go out on his terms, but in doing so, the Steelers may have sacrificed a shot at building something more sustainable around their defense. It’s a classic case of short-term sentiment versus long-term strategy.
Now, with Roethlisberger retired and the team still searching for its next franchise quarterback, the Steelers find themselves in a holding pattern-good enough to compete, but still looking for that missing piece to get over the hump. Nelson’s words won’t change the past, but they do offer a raw, unfiltered look at how decisions made in the name of loyalty can ripple through a locker room-and a franchise-for years to come.