There are three guarantees in life: Death, taxes, and Ben Roethlisberger being a prime late-round 2021 fantasy football value at the quarterback position.
The 39-year-old iron man looked to be in mid-season form last Saturday night. Big Ben completed 8-of-10 passes for 137 yards, tacked on two touchdowns (both to rookie TE Pat Freiermuth), and zero interceptions.
The Steelers’ offense looked very similar to last year’s edition. Steelers OC Matt Canada dialed up a lot of short, quick throws to help protect Ben and the offensive line, which ranks 31st in PFF’s 2021 rankings. The biggest question mark entering the season for the Steelers offense this year will be that offensive line and despite losing four veteran starters, the group protected Roethlisberger adequately during his lone preseason appearance.
Roethlisberger is certainly not short of weapons in Pittsburgh. The addition of Najee Harris will improve the Steelers’ putrid running attack. The team ranked dead last in both rushing yards and yards per carry last season. Najee will change that, which adds another element for defenses to worry about. Not to mention the trio of Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool, and JuJu Smith-Schuster will provide Roethlisberger with plenty of play-making and big-play potential out wide.
Two quarterbacks supported three top-25 fantasy WRs last season:
1. Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger
2. New Broncos starting QB Teddy Bridgewater— Mike Clay (@MikeClayNFL) August 25, 2021
Roethlisberger is the best insurance policy at QB in 2021 fantasy football leagues. I don’t typically draft two quarterbacks but if you draft one of the young quarterbacks like Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, or even Trevor Lawrence, Trey Lance, or Justin Fields, you should grab Roethlisberger with your last pick as an insurance policy in case they get off to a slow start.
Where Roethlisberger truly holds value is in two QB or Superflex formats. He’s essentially a free square in the late rounds. Plus, you can improve your running back and receiver depth in the early-to-mid rounds.
Oh, and one last thing, if you’re like me and like to stack your QB with some of his weapons, Big Ben plus any of his wide receivers is one of the cheapest stacks in fantasy this year.
In our updated 2021 Big Board, Wolf has Roethlisberger ranked as the QB19, +1 vs. ECR. Ben is definitely an unsexy pick at QB, but he still has some juice left in the tank with a safe floor at an extremely cheap price.
