The Pittsburgh Steelers have a new offensive coordinator in place for the first time since 2012, and Ben Roethlisberger expects one big change to be made under the new leadership — he’ll be calling more plays.
Roethlisberger loves running the no-huddle offense and lobbied to use it more under former OC Todd Haley, and the quarterback said Wednesday that he expects to have more play-calling responsibility under new OC Randy Fichtner.
“For sure, which makes me study more, meet with Randy more, doing all that stuff, even more than in the past, which is fine,” Roethlisberger said when asked if he expects to have more freedom, via Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I always did a lot of stuff, but if they’re going to put that trust in me, then I have to then reward them with the knowledge that I’m going to do the right thing, call the right plays.”
Roethlisberger admitted that there were times when he asked Haley to implement the no-huddle more, but he said he understands why an OC would want to call the plays himself. For that reason, he insists there are “no hard feelings” between him and his former coach.
If you remember, Roethlisberger appeared to throw Haley under the bus after a couple of key plays did not work out in the playoffs last season. There was clearly some tension between the two, and it sounds like Big Ben is getting more of what he wants under Fichtner.
