SCU Awards: Steelers MVP

by Eric Herrmann (SteelersGrind) on February 21, 2017

Steel City Underground presents the 1st annual SCU Awards. Our panel of contributors all voted on various awards for the Steelers with the player getting the most votes being the winner. Each article will have the list of nominees with one of our contributors stating their case for why that player earned their vote and deserves the award. Comment and let us know if you agree or disagree with our winners and nominees.

The award everybody’s been waiting for.

The winner of the Steelers MVP came down to the interpretation of the award. On one hand you have Le’Veon Bell, who during the Steelers winning streak was playing running back at a hall-of-fame worthy level of play. On the other hand you have Ben Roethlisberger, the leader of the Steelers and player the team lives and die with. Cases can be made for both of these players and both players are worthy of the honor.

Do you vote the player who played the best football or the player who’s absence would have the biggest impact on the team…

Ben Roethlisberger

My MVP is Ben Roethlisberger. Frankly, Ben is the MVP every year. I know it, he knows it, the players all know it. If you don’t have Ben, this team is not a contender, it’s not even a pretender. It’s mediocre. To me, the definition of “Most Valuable Player” is the guy who, if you take him out of the mix, the team simply is not capable of overcoming that loss. That’s Ben. You don’t, and can’t easily replace a franchise quarterback. Ben may have his ups and downs, and we saw both this season, from the way ups (like the Kansas City game) to the way downs (uggg, Buffalo). The team spent three games without Le’Veon Bell and a whole season without Martavis Bryant. They managed without these guys, and that largely falls on the shoulders of Big Ben.

What happened when Ben got hurt? Nothing very good.

Go back through his history. When Ben is out, we are not the same team. It would be crazy to think we could be. Ben does things no other quarterback is capable of doing. He makes amazing deep throws, and he is a gunslinger, a little bit like Brett Favre. So there will be days that are just plain bad, mistakes will be made, because that’s the nature of the beast. He takes chances, and more often than not, he makes us cheer.

– Brian Roach

Le’Veon Bell

I chose Bell as my MVP because many times throughout the season he carried the team. Touching the ball at nearly 30 times a game, Bell was able to have an impact in every win for the Steelers. He also managed to lead the league in most yards from scrimmage per game. Though it’s hard to argue with Ben being voted as the MVP, Bell simply played at a higher level of football in the latter half of the season. As one reporter said, he was playing running back at the level Aaron Rodgers was playing quarterback.

Although he did miss the first 3 games I believe he was the Steelers MVP, and so do the other players on the team because they voted him team MVP. Bell is a worthy candidate as the Steelers most valuable player. At the pace Bell is at he could go down as the best Steelers running back of all time.

– Dan Lee