In the Super Bowl era, the Pittsburgh Steelers had been a single of, if not the finest, teams in the NFL. Due to the fact 1966, the Steelers have won six Super Bowls, tied for the most in the league, and element of the purpose for these six Lombardi trophies is their quarterback play thanks to Terry Bradshaw and Ben Roethlisberger.
Yesterday, Garrett Podel of CBS Sports released a ranking of the NFL group with the finest quarterback talent in the Super Bowl era, and Pittsburgh created the list. Even though he won six Super Bowls with two quarterbacks, Pittsburgh was seventh.
“The Steelers are tied for the second most championships of any group quarterback group on this list with the New England Patriots, but the person accomplishments of Terry Bradshaw and Ben Roethlisberger pale in comparison to the other quarterbacks on this list with just two Super Bowl MVPs and a single NFL MVP amongst the two of them,” Podel wrote.
Combining Bradshaw and Roethlisberger for just a single NFL MVP of course hurt their lead to, but Podell also talked about how Bradshaw’s stat line did not enable either, throwing 212 touchdowns and 210 interceptions.
“Also holding the Steelers back is that Bradshaw barely had far more passing touchdowns than interceptions, with 212 passing and 210 interceptions.
To be fair to Podell, this all tends to make sense. As a lot as we enjoy our Pittsburgh quarterbacks, it really is tough to rank them against quarterbacks like Johnny Unitas and Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis/Baltimore Colts or Brett Farve and Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay.
Yet another aspect that brought down each Bradshaw and Roethlisberger was the defense they played with. Each quarterbacks played with some of the finest defenses of all time and the Steelers won most of their Super Bowls on the strength of their defense. Although Bradshaw and Roethlisberger had their moments in Super Bowls, the Steelers of the 70s had been recognized for their defense, as had been the Steelers of the mid-2000s.
Now, Pittsburgh does not win these Super Bowls without the need of each quarterbacks, but that is why they are on the list and no far more. Each Bradshaw and Roethlisberger will be in the Hall of Fame collectively in just a handful of seasons, but offered Bradshaw’s mediocre stats and Roethlisberger’s 1st-group All-Pro choice and no MVP, it nevertheless knocks the Steelers off the list a bit.
On the other hand, even though the Steelers do not have the finest quarterback area in the Super Bowl era, they do have the most Super Bowls, so there actually is not a lot to complain about. Each Bradshaw and Roethlisberger did it when it mattered, winning six of a doable seven Super Bowls the group appeared in.