1. Just how valuable?

With the most definitive word yet coming this week that Ben Roethlisberger will likely retire following this season, much discussion and reflection has been undertaken on his career and legacy as he faces what will probably be his final home game Monday night against the Cleveland Browns.

But how can one use numbers to measure how stellar of a career Roethlisberger has had? In a sport with such varied and myriad positions and in which the rules and style and play have changed so much over eras, how can you rank players among all-time greats? There is no generally accepted quantitative formula like is in baseball with wins above replacement (WAR).

Pro-football-reference.com tries, through a couple of metrics. Its “Hall of Fame Monitor” calculation uses its bedrock “Approximate value” stat — weighing it most toward “best” season, then second-best season, etc. — and adds bonuses for other, more traditional (and sometimes subjective) measures such as championships won, Pro Bowl/All-Pro honors, MVPs, All-Decade Teams, etc.

Pro Football Reference rates Roethlisberger as the 15th-most “valuable” player in NFL history, the 10th-most so among quarterbacks and eighth-most among players whose careers coincided with his era by at least two seasons. In its Hall of Fame monitor, Roethlisberger rates as the 13th-best QB of all-time.

According to PFR, only seven quarterbacks in NFL history have won more league championships (two), only five have spent more seasons as his team’s primary starter (17), five have played in more games (247) and four started more games (245).

This could be it for Ben Roethlisberger at Heinz Field.https://t.co/HUvLsRJ4ZI

— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) January 1, 2022

2. Mr. Steeler

Roethlisberger often has remarked he takes pride in being relied-upon and available. And no player has been more available to the Steelers in their nine decades of existence than him.

Roethlisberger’s 18 seasons with the team are three more than anyone else (Mike Webster is alone in second place with 15). Assuming he suits up Monday and next Sunday in Baltimore, he’ll have played 19 more games than Webster for most for the Steelers (249). His 247 starts would end up also outpacing Webster, 53 more than anyone else in the black and gold.

When it comes to passing stats, Roethlisberger by far has run away with all of the cumulative records, more than doubling second-place Terry Bradshaw in passing yards (63,721-27,989), and completions (5,386-2,025), and almost doubling him in passing touchdowns (416-212).

One statistic in which he hasn’t yet caught Bradshaw? Interceptions. But that could change: Roethlisberger has thrown 209, one fewer than Bradshaw, with likely two games left to “catch” him.

The context for this is, from my crack research, most *seasons* played for a pro PGH sports team than:

1. Willie Stargell (21!)

2 (t). BEN ROETHLISBERGER (18)Honus WagnerRoberto ClementeBabe Adams

6 (t). Sidney Crosby (17)Mario LemieuxPie TraynorBill Mazeroski https://t.co/h6LHCR4Udf

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) January 1, 2022

3. Comeback Ben

It’s been discussed this season that Roethlisberger has been part of 40 fourth-quarter comebacks as a quarterback (including a career-high six this season), third-most in NFL history. He also rates tied with Tom Brady for third all-time in credited “game-winning drives” with 52. Roethlisberger would be proud to note he’s at the top of both lists in regards to most done for one franchise.

But what about big, more-improbable comebacks? The Steelers 28 times have overcome a deficit of 10 more or points since Roethlisberger entered the league in 2004. That’s the most in the NFL in that time. Nineteen of those double-digit comebacks since Big Ben’s 2004 rookie season came after halftime — second-most in the league — and 11 came on the road, tied the Chargers for the most. Over the course of Roethlisberger’s career, the Steelers’ 31 comeback wins after trailing through three quarters is the most in the NFL.

Of course, Roethlisberger’s most celebrated winning drive was to clinch the comeback win in the final minutes of Super Bowl XLIII in February 2009.

Ben Roethlisberger orchestrated his 45th fourth-quarter game-winning drive last Sunday, but it definitely wasn't his first rodeo. #fbf pic.twitter.com/51CPQApzod

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) November 24, 2018

4. Beaten everybody

Roethlisberger is one of only eight quarterbacks to beat 31 NFL teams. Four have beaten all 32 — but that has not been possible for Roethlisberger, who of course never has played the Steelers.

Roethlisberger is one of 10 quarterbacks since the AFL/NFL merger who have beaten either every team in the league over the time period they played or every other team than the one it played for. Ken Stabler makes it 11; he never faced the Raiders over five seasons after he left the franchise following a decade-long tenure.

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