Ben Roethlisberger, the longtime quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers, only played two games in the 2019 season before being shut down due to an elbow injury.

As one of the longest-tenured and most notable players in Steelers history, Big Ben’s words hold a lot of weight, and he had some strong ones for the Steelers young receiving corps in 2019 – headlined by JuJu Smith-Schuster, James Washington and Diontae Johnson, all of whom were 23 years old last season.

Roethlisberger was quoted in a story by Curt Popejoy on USA Today’s Steelers Wire via an appearance on a morning show on WDVE discussing Washington and Smith-Schuster in particular:

“I thought James Washington really took some big steps in terms of his conditioning,” Roethlisberger said. “I saw James on numerous occasions, multiple times a game, run deep routes — obviously full-speed, looking for the ball — doesn’t get it, and he is like sprinting back to the huddle and runs another route.”

Smith-Schuster was a Pro-Bowler in 2018 after putting up 1426 receiving yards on 111 receptions, but his numbers dipped considerably in 2019 – mostly due to the fact that Roethlisberger was not delivering him the ball.

On JuJu, Roethlisberger had this to say.

“I think one of the most impressive things that I saw on the sideline, and had communication with him, was JuJu,” Roethlisberger said. “I think you saw a guy that wasn’t as productive as he wanted to be, and as he was expected to be, but he was still able to go out there and be a leader for guys. Guys in that receivers room, guys were still looking up to him, still talking to him. He was out there giving it everything he had.”