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Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was back with the team after a family vacation kept him away for a good portion of voluntary organized team activities. His prolonged absence gave a chance for his backups－Landry Jones, Joshua Dobbs, and rookie Mason Rudolph－to get more reps in at practice, which they were apparently most grateful to Big Ben for.
“I know those guys really enjoyed it, and they were thanking me for it,” Roethlisberger said, via Sean Gentille of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Roethlisberger added that missing OTAs wasn’t such a big deal for him personally since he believes training camp is where the “real football” begins.
“You've got to understand, too, this is football without pads on,” Roethlisberger said. “This is kind of getting back into it. That's the way I look at OTAs and minicamps, it's just kind of getting back into it, knocking some rust off. You start to get a feel for some young guys a little bit, but it's all going to change once you get to camp. Once you get to camp, you get pads on and that's when real football begins.”
While Big Ben has remained relatively healthy over the last couple of years, he is already 36 years with a history of niggling injuries which have kept him out of a handful of games in past seasons. As such, the Steelers must be prepared for the possibility that their star quarterback misses time.
The Steelers are likely preparing themselves for life without Ben, as evidenced by their selection of Rudolph in the third round. Of course, that was not such a popular pick as far as Roethlisberger was concerned.
Rudolph is unlikely to be ready to step in right away this season in case Roethlisberger goes down. But the added reps he, Jones, and even Dobbs got will go some way toward preparing them for that possibility.
