Ben Roethlisberger has routinely sat out Wednesday practices in recent years. But Thursdays? That almost never happens, barring injury.
Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner confirmed that Roethlisberger was absent for the beginning of Thursday’s practice at the UPMC Rooney Sports Co1mplex. But even if Roethlisberger missed what was estimated as the first 45 minutes of the workout three days in advance of a showdown of undefeated teams at the Tennessee Titans, there apparently is no reason for Steelers fans to panic.
On the Steelers’ league-mandated official practice report, Roethlisberger was listed as a limited particiant Thursday, and the designation “personal” was added as his “injury.”
During a video conference call with media, Fichtner said Roethlisberger was “good to go” for Sunday’s game.
“Oh yeah, he’s good,” Fichtner said. “Just part of our maintenance program that we do. We talk about certain things, and some of the things for the the development of our young quarterbacks, and we’ve got to step back at times and make sure we’re doing that. He finished practice really well and did a nice job.’
For maybe the latter half of what has been a 17-year NFL career so far, Roethlisberger has been given a “veteran’s day” off by coach Mike Tomlin on Wednesdays. This season, at age 38, that strategy is likely even more prudent because Roethlisberger is coming off elbow surgery that limited his 2019 to seven quarters of game action (including preseason).
Also, with the coronavirus pandemic always a threat to make players unavailable for games, the Steelers are carrying four quarterbacks this season. Roethlisberger sitting out gives extra reps to backups Mason Rudolph, Josh Dobbs and Devlin Hodges.
Since he started throwing again earlier this year through training camp and the early portions of this season, Roethlisberger has repeatedly given positive reports on the health of his arm/elbow. He was asked about it Wednesday.
“It feels great,” Roethlisberger said. “No setbacks, no issues. Every once in a while I will bump it on the ground or get hit and I’ll feel at it. But those are more just bumps, nothing on the surgical side. Everything is going great.”
Through five games for the undefeated Steelers, Roethlisberger has the NFL’s sixth-best passer rating (109.1) and second-best interception rate (0.6%, or one in 165 attempts). He has completed 69.1% of his passes, a rate that would be a career high for a season.
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