Ben Roethlisberger admitted to having some frustration with Todd Haley’s offensive system last year, but things seem better between the two.
Haley was brought in as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive coordinator after losing his job as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. The relationship between Haley and Roethlisberger started off shaky; Big Ben described the offense as “dink and dunk” and lamented the lack of big plays. Later in the season, he apologized for criticizing Haley’s playcalling following a loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
In an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune Review on Saturday, Roethlisberger admitted to having frustration with Haley last year, mostly over the terminology used for the offense.
“He brought it in and (said) ‘Here’s my stuff, here’s what we’re going to do.’ So it was hard for us to say, ‘Hey, we were pretty doggone good last year, what were we 12-4?’” Roethlisberger told the Tribune-Review. “We would say, ‘Oh, we know this play, it’s the same thing we had, but it’s called completely different.’ So why not call it the same thing? So there was a lot of frustration with that.”
Roethlisberger also said he liked the no-huddle offense the team used during one stretch last season and was disappointed when they went away from it. But it sounds like things are getting better. Roethlisberger seems to believe the two are on the same page when it comes to visions for the offense (Roethlisberger wants it up-tempo). He also says Haley made a big concession by telling the Steelers veterans they could call plays by whatever language they’re most comfortable using.
The Steelers may have some obstacles to overcome this year. Roethlisberger had his knee scoped last month and had a serious rib/shoulder injury last year. He also lost one of his favorite targets — deep threat Mike Wallace — who left for the Miami Dolphins in free agency. The last thing he needed was to worry about was getting confused by terminology for plays.
