Twelve years later, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is still baffled by the Browns passing on him.
He’s hardly the only one.
“They made the mistake of not drafting him, obviously, but it would’ve been great if we did,” Browns nine-time Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Thomas said. “Obviously, it’s still a sore subject to him, and it seems like he enjoys sticking it to the Browns whenever he can for not drafting him.”
The Browns (0-10) will receive another reminder of what could have been when they face Roethlisberger and the Steelers (4-5) at 1 p.m. Sunday at FirstEnergy Stadium.
If the Browns had drafted Roethlisberger in 2004, it’s safe to say the infamous jersey listing their quarterbacks would have never been created and displayed on a mannequin by a Cleveland advertising agency.
The expansion-era Browns have missed countless opportunities to draft transcendent players, yet Roethlisberger remains the ultimate “one who got away” since their rebirth in 1999.
“It seems like a no-brainer now,” Thomas said. “We’ve tried to draft quarterbacks in the first round. It just hasn’t worked out yet.”
Since the Steelers picked Roethlisberger, they have gone 130-71, made eight playoff appearances and won five AFC North titles, three AFC championships and two Super Bowls. Since the Browns passed on him, they have gone 61-141 with no playoff appearances and 10 last-place finishes in the division.
The Browns have started 26 quarterbacks since 1999 — 21 of them since Roethlisberger entered the NFL. He has faced 13 of them and defeated all but one, Brady Quinn. He’s 19-2 as a starter against the Browns (Brian Hoyer has the other win against him) and torched them once in relief. Dealing with a foot injury last season, Roethlisberger came off the bench in a 30-9 triumph over the Browns.
During a recent conference call, Roethlisberger chuckled and said there’s “no chance” he could name all of the Browns quarterbacks he has played. “I feel like it was almost a different one every time,” he added.
Roethlisberger certainly had the last laugh after former Browns coach Butch Davis decided to trade up one spot and draft tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. sixth overall in 2004. Davis recruited Winslow to the University of Miami. A Findlay native, Roethlisberger went to Miami University in Ohio and was selected 11th overall by the Steelers.
“Maybe Butch Davis just liked his Hurricanes, so he didn’t want to pass up one of them,” Thomas noted.
Davis had also signed then 34-year-old Jeff Garcia that offseason and was content at quarterback.
“I am almost positive I did a workout for them, like a private workout,” Roethlisberger said. “I thought I did really good, by the way, but I guess not.”
Roethlisberger has made it well known that he’s used the snub as motivation to pummel the Browns over the years.
“This is still a huge rival for me, especially me personally,” he said. “It is Ohio. It is the Browns. I thought I was going to go to the Browns. I am kind of over that, but for me, this is AFC North football. Like I said, it is the Browns. This is a huge rivalry for us.”
As Steelers coach Mike Tomlin explained during a conference call, Roethlisberger is a competitor. “That is what competitors do,” he said. “They find things to drive them. It may be a big thing. It may be seemingly a small thing. But they do what it is they need to do to get themselves in the frame of mind to prepare and then ultimately play, and I am sure that is an element of it.”
Roethlisberger felt deja vu when the new Browns regime passed on Carson Wentz this year by trading the No. 2 overall pick to the Philadelphia Eagles. Like Roethlisberger, 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds, Wentz is a big quarterback (6-5, 237 pounds) with a strong arm who hails from a small school, North Dakota State. They’re also represented by the same agent, Ryan Tollner. Wentz beat the Browns in the regular-season opener and is 5-4 as a starter this season.
“I thought for sure he was going to Cleveland,” Roethlisberger said. “There was not a doubt in my mind that he wasn’t a perfect AFC North quarterback, a great fit for you guys and everything. Then when everything transpired, I was blown away by it, but you never know. It is early in his career. You hate to jump to conclusions and call him the same thing as me, who has been in the league for 13 years, but only time will tell if that same thing kind of happened there, too.”
Wentz has a long way to go to reach Big Ben’s status.
Roethlisberger is 117-60 as a starter in the regular season and 11-6 in the playoffs. He’s made four Pro Bowls and won two of the three Super Bowls in which he’s appeared. He’s 46-17 in the AFC North.
He is the model quarterback for the division, right?
“That is a hot question,” Browns coach Hue Jackson said. “What we need is a winning quarterback. Let me put it like that. Obviously, Ben has a lot of great characteristics, and I am not going to compare him to the guys that are on our roster, but do we want a guy that can win like him? Absolutely.”
Roethlisberger has won more games in Cleveland than all but one expansion-era Browns quarterback, Derek Anderson. He could tie Anderson at 10 victories Sunday.
“I remember games against them where we had it close in the end and all the sudden he breaks loose from a sure sack, somebody’s unblocked or somebody gets beat and he shakes that guy off and just takes a few steps out of the pocket and chucks to 60 yards downfield,” Thomas said. “That’s the type of stuff that you can’t practice against and when he does it, it’s so demoralizing for a team because you’re doing everything right and you just can’t get the guy down.
“No matter the team he’s going against, no matter the team that’s around him, he always elevates everybody’s play, and he gives them a chance to win every single week. The way he plays the quarterback position, you could put him on any team in the NFL, and it’s almost like he could make them better and he could give them a chance to win any game. The durability that he’s had throughout his career, the difficulty he gives defenses of tackling him, his ability to make big plays, I think it’s almost unparalleled in today’s game.”
But he wasn’t good enough for the Browns.
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.