The Pittsburgh Steelers are hoping that the transition from Ben Roethlisberger to Kenny Pickett is a smooth one, but Roethlisberger made a stunning admission regarding how he hoped Pickett would perform, all while Pickett was a guest on his podcast.

“I'll be completely honest,” Ben Roethlisberger said on his Footbahlin podcast, according to Alex Kozora of Steelers Depot. “And I'll be super transparent here and I'm gonna get blasted. I probably shouldn't say this, but I mean, who cares at this point? I wouldn't say that I wanted Kenny to necessarily fail, but when someone comes to replace you and I still feel like I had it, I hope he doesn't come ball out, because then it's like, ‘Ben, who?'”

However, Roethlisberger said he does not feel that way anymore, and took the opportunity to apologize.

“Early on, I didn't want him to succeed because they followed me up,” Roethlisberger said on his Footbahlin podcast, according to Kozora. “I didn't want it to happen. I think that's probably the selfishness of me and I feel bad for it…  As you started playing, I found myself rooting more and more for you. You know what I'm saying? We sat down here and watched games and were high-fiving, going nuts when you were leading the team and doing things.”

Roethlisberger finished by saying he believes that Kenny Pickett is the future of the Steelers.

“I apologized to you for not knowing how good he was gonna be,” Roethlisberger said on his Footbahlin podcast, according to Kozora. ”

Hopefully for the Steelers' sake, Roethlisberger is right.