“I want to send prayers & thoughts to all those out there that might be affected by this hurricane. I think it’s important we all think about those people…our thoughts & prayers are with you”. — Ben.



From Teresa Varley, Steelers.com:

“It just got hit,” said Roethlisberger on Wednesday morning. “It’s bruised. It will be fine.”

Roethlisberger injured the elbow in overtime of the Steelers 21-21 tie against the Browns, when he was hit on the second to the last play of the game, a strip sack by rookie Genard Avery.

Roethlisberger said he doesn’t expect to miss any time with the injury, other than maybe a little bit of practice time today as the Steelers prepare for their home opener against the Kansas City Chiefs.

The latest trend in football is the offense running the ‘RPO,’ which translates into “run-pass option.” It’s basically when the quarterback makes a decision to run or throw on a play that is designed with options available for both.

It’s an option Roethlisberger likes to have at his disposal, and one he said they need to work on more as they get accustomed to using it.

“That seems to be the hot topic in football now, whether it’s the NFL or college,” said Roethlisberger. “Sometimes it’s just prudent to try things. You can ask receivers to block guys that come down, or you can ask them to run a route and if it’s open you throw it. It’s a little new for me. We have done some of it in the past. It’s something I have to get used. I missed an early one to AB (Antonio Brown), just understanding how fast guys can get there. He got there a lot quicker than JuJu (Smith-Schuster) did later. It’s still going to take time for me to get used to it and perfect it. I am going to work at it because it can be good as we saw.

“It gives you options. It’s one of those things where you can hand the ball off with eight or nine in the box and beat your head against the wall sometimes. Or you can find a way to fake it and throw it to a guy that’s open. When it works it’s really good, when it doesn’t you have to figure something out.”


More from Ben:

On the Chiefs defense, which has a lot of new faces since the Steelers last played them:
“A lot of new faces. I spent a lot of time thinking about the Chiefs and the defense. We faced them a lot the last few years. There are a lot of new faces, especially corners, secondary, d-line, there are still some familiar outside linebackers getting the pass rush. It’s definitely a different looking defense.”


On rookie James Washington learning the offense fast:

“If you think about it they need to learn the offense, the hand signals, the no huddle stuff. There is a lot to learn. You ask guys to do a lot of things. We asked JuJu to do a lot because we moved him around and asked him to play multiple positions. It’s hard enough to learn one position. But James is getting it. He is learning. When I test him out there on the field he gets it. He understands it. Now it’s just translating it to on the field stuff.”


On Vance McDonald:

“Vance is a really good weapon for us. We hope to have him out there soon. He has to be smart and get out there when he is ready to go. We can’t afford to do something crazy and have him out for the whole season because he is a very vital part of this offense.”


You can watch video of Ben’s interview here.