Is Ben Roethlisberger a Hall of Famer? The case for, against Steelers QB being enshrined in Canton

Ben Roethlisberger's career has come to an end. The long-time Steelers starter has officially called it quits after playing all but one game for the team during the 2021 NFL season. He helped lead the team to a 9-7-1 record, but they were eliminated in the first round of the 2022 NFL playoffs at the hands of the Chiefs, 42-21.

Roethlisberger was the primary starter for the Steelers for 18 seasons. He began his career as a backup but quickly entered the fray for the Steelers and posted an undefeated 13-0 regular-season record as a rookie. From there, he rose to become one of the NFL's best, most consistent quarterbacks and led the Steelers to two Super Bowl wins.

The last few seasons haven't been pretty for Roethlisberger, as injuries and age have sapped him of his once high-level skill set. As such, he's riding into the sunset having racked up more wins than any other quarterback in Steelers history.

Roethlisberger has collected plenty of awards and accolades during his NFL career. Will he get one more by being elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame? We won't know officially until at least five years from now, but the case for him to do so looks strong.

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The case for Ben Roethlisberger making the Hall of Fame

If you break down Roethlisberger's Hall of Fame case just by looking at how he compares to the average Hall of Fame quarterback, he looks like a shoo-in.

Of course, the NFL has become a much more pass-happy league since Roethlisberger was drafted in 2004. However, even accounting for that statistical inflation, his achievements still line up with the average gold jacket quarterbacks.

Minus the lack of an All-Pro nod, Roethlisberger certainly looks like a Hall of Famer. That argument is only bolstered when looking at him int comparison to a handful of the Hall of Famers at his position.

Ben Roethlisberger stats

Pro Football Reference has a handy metric called "similarity scores" that determines how similar a player at any position's career was to another player at that position. When looking at some of the players paired with Roethlisberger, it's easy to envision him as a Hall of Fame-type player.

John Elway; Dan Marino, Joe Montana; Terry Bradshaw. These are just a few of the names thrown around when looking at Roethlisberger's career. And as you can see, he compares favorably to all four of the Hall of Famers.

Roethlisberger may not have the same All-Pro accolades as these passers, but his stats and wins speak for themselves. It's also worth noting that he was frequently up against the likes of Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, all current or future Hall of Famers, so his competition was fierce.

Some may scoff at the notion of comparing Roethlisberger to those legends because he played in a far more passing driven NFL than they did. That's a fair argument to make, so it's important to look at him in the context of his more current Hall of Fame peers.

There are three current Hall of Famer quarterbacks that played after the year 2000. They are Manning, Brett Favre and Kurt Warner. Here's how Roethlisberger stacks up against those three passers.

Again, you can certainly claim that Roethlisberger comes up short in terms of accolades, as he is the only member of the group not to notch multiple All-Pro appearances. Additionally, each of the other quarterbacks has won MVP at least twice — Warner has two, Favre has three and Manning has five. Roethlisberger doesn't even have a Super Bowl MVP to his name.

That said, Roethlisberger's passer rating and total wins are comparable to his high-end peers, and he ranks top-10 all-time in touchdown passes and top-five in total passing yards. He also has set numerous NFL records, including the league record for most 500-yard passing games (four). As such, his numbers are worthy of getting a Hall of Fame nod even if he comes short in the All-Pro and MVP category.

The case against Ben Roethlisberger making the Hall of Fame

When looking at the numbers as a whole, Roethlisberger is a pretty clear-cut Hall of Famer. However, there are two factors that could keep him from getting votes during the early stages of his Hall of Fame eligibility.

Roethlisberger has regressed during the final three years of his NFL career. He has still been able to deliver passes accurate to his receivers, but his ability to throw deep passes and stretch the defense has been almost non-existent. That's largely due to an elbow injury from which he never truly recovered after suffering it early in the 2019 campaign.

Late-career regression is nothing new for quarterbacks that stay in the league 15-plus years, but Roethlisberger's has been particularly notable, as the Steelers' offense has slumped and stalled since their 11-0 start to the 2020 NFL season. The lasting image of Roethlisberger throwing checkdowns, suffering sacks and looking immobile could cause some Hall of Fame voters to consider other players ahead of Roethlisberger despite his career-long accomplishments. Chalk that up to recency bias, which can have an impact on voters.

Ben Roethlisberger rape case

The other part of this equation has to do with the off-the-field incidents that followed Roethlisberger during the early stage of his career. Most notably, he was accused of sexual assault in Milledgeville, Ga. in 2010. The victim, then a 20-year-old student at Georgia College & State University, alleged that Roethlisberger raped her in a nightclub bathroom after he had invited her and her friends to the VIP area of the club.

Roethlisberger denied the incident — though he admitted that he had been in contact with the woman in question — and a rape kit performed on the victim didn't provide enough male DNA to create a profile. Ultimately, district attorney Fred Bright announced that charges would not be filed against Roethlisberger, a move partly influenced by the victim stating that she did not want to go through an "intrusive" trial experience.

What is obvious in looking forward is that a criminal trial would be a very intrusive personal experience for a complainant in the situation, given the extraordinary media attention that would be inevitable. The media coverage to date and the efforts of the media to access our client have been unnerving to say the least.

Though the victim asked for there to be no trial, she did not recant her accusation.

The NFL suspended Roethlisberger six games for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy. It was later reduced to four games.

Though Roethlisberger was not charged or found guilty of rape of sexual assault, some voters may still consider this incident in evaluating Roethlisberger's Hall of Fame case. The Pro Football Hall of Fame doesn't have strict guidelines for Hall of Fame eligibility or a morality clause that would prevent Roethlisberger from being inducted, so voters will make their own decision about how to evaluate Roethlisberger's checkered history off the field.

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Will Ben Roethlisberger be a Hall of Famer?

Odds are that Roethlisberger will eventually be enshrined in Canton, even if some voters choose not to vote for Roethlisberger because of his off-the-field issues. The real question is whether he will get in when he is first eligible to be enshrined in 2027.

But because of the lacking presence of a morality clause, voters will eventually give Roethlisberger the nod. He has the numbers needed to be a Hall of Famer and his on-field achievements are among the best of the last 20 years. So, it seems likely that the Steelers great will someday find his way to Canton.