Bias against Roethlisberger in favor of Rivers doesn’t add up
This past week, New Orleans Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan started the trash talk early against Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers. Before the big game. Before the outcome was determined. Through a pretty rude statement towards Big Ben, Cam claimed not only that Ben was not a Top-5 QB of this era, but that he would take Philip Rivers and Eli Manning over Ben. Going around the national media, hashing things out over Jordan’s statements, most people disagreed with taking Eli over Ben, but surprisingly, most said that they would take Rivers over Roethlisberger.
Most recently, on their show “Golic and Wingo,” Mike Golic, Sr., Mike Golic, Jr., and Trey Wingo each said, without hesitation, that they would take Philip Rivers over Ben Roethlisberger.
I was genuinely curious as to why so many media members were making this statement, and this just adds to the narrative that Ben gets zero credit from anyone besides Steelers faithful. I am not discrediting Philip Rivers, but I find it hard to believe that anyone would take him over Big Ben.
Let’s start by taking a look at the statistics between the two quarterbacks.
Not surprisingly, the two are very similar, in almost every single stat possible. Roethlisberger has passed for 55,527 yards (prior to Week 16 of the 2018 regular season), and Rivers has passed for 54,299. Roethlisberger has thrown for a total of 359 touchdowns, while Rivers has thrown for 373 total touchdowns. But Roethlisberger has rushed for 19 touchdowns compared to Rivers only rushing for three total in his entire career. Speaking of rushing statistics, Roethlisberger has rushed for 1,343 yards to Rivers’ 579.
Roethlisberger has a 64.4% completion percentage to Rivers’ 64.6%; almost identical. You may think that Ben throws more interceptions than Philip might, and you would be right, but they are not that far off of each other. In total, Philip has thrown 174 interceptions while Ben has thrown 189. Those are close numbers, but not as close as the interception percentage rate, which is how likely each QB is to throw an interception on each play. Philip has a 2.5% interception percentage with Ben at 2.7%.
What about Roethlisberger throwing more pass attempts in his career? Wouldn’t that skew this numbers game in Ben’s favor? Not exactly. Ben has only attempted 143 more passes than Rivers and averages 7.85 yards per completion compared to Rivers’ 7.83. Ben also completes 64.4% of his passes while Rivers completes 64.6%. In addition, Roethlisberger has played in 214 games while Rivers has played in 210.
I could keep going on about specific statistics, but it is clear that both quarterbacks are as equal as you could possibly be in terms of game-by-game statistics. Which brings me back to why there is such a media bias towards eliminating Roethlisberger in discussions about top quarterbacks.
As a Steelers fan, you’re probably thinking that there has got to be some statistic that separates Roethlisberger from Rivers. How much does each quarterback win? If these sports media “experts” are talking about which quarterback they would rather have, shouldn’t wins be the biggest factor in choosing one over the other?
Big Ben, when starting regular season games, has a winning percentage of about 67.69%. This is huge in comparison with Rivers at 56.80%. One could argue that Roethlisberger has been on better teams with better players, but that is a hard stat to judge if the two quarterbacks played their careers on different teams than they currently have.
What about comeback wins? Roethlisberger has been superior in this category by far. He has 3 fourth-quarter comebacks with 41 separate game-winning drives. Rivers has had only 26 fourth-quarter comebacks and 30 game-winning drives. When it comes down to the end of the game, which quarterback would you rather have?
Of course, all of these statistics haven’t even included the playoffs and the Super Bowl, which is the ultimate goal for every NFL team, every season.
Roethlisberger has played in 21 playoff games where Rivers has only played in nine games. I don’t even need to go through the statistics for those games because it would be obvious that Roethlisberger was the superior quarterback. If you look at the statistics in terms of percentages to where it takes away the amount of games played, Ben still plays better than Philip, and it isn’t even a competition. Rivers has only been to the AFC Championship game once, where of course, Ben has been to three Super Bowls and won two of them (not to mention the AFC Championships).
It genuinely confuses me as to not only why members of the sports media would take Philip Rivers over Ben Roethlisberger, but it confuses me even more that for some, it isn’t even a discussion. Philip Rivers is a stellar quarterback. Based on the numbers, though, he’s not better than Big Ben.
I don’t know about you, but I would select Roethlisberger over Rivers every time in the 2004 NFL draft.
