The Pittsburgh Steelers will be without starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for Week 7 versus the New England Patriots.
Roethlisberger will undergo surgery to "trim" a torn meniscus in his left knee, NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport reported, via a source informed of the situation. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette first reported the news of Roethlisberger's injury.
The 34-year-old signal-caller played through pain in the second half of Sunday's loss to the Miami Dolphins after missing the majority of the second quarter with the injury. Roethlisberger described his knee as "black and blue" after the game, per NFL Media's Aditi Kinkhabwala.
After hosting the Pats in Week 7, the Steelers go on bye in Week 8 and travel to Baltimore for a divisional showdown with the Ravens in Week 9.
The team will have a more definitive timetable for Roethlisberger after he goes under the knife, Rapoport adds. If the injury ends up necessitating a full repair, he would be out indefinitely. If it's merely a cleanup, there's a chance he could miss just the one game.
Whereas the Patriots survived Tom Brady's early-season absence with recent high draft picks Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett, the Steelers have neglected to upgrade their quarterback insurance.
The dropoff from Roethlisberger to Landry Jones is as steep as any starter-to-backup transition in the league.
A scattershot Jones managed a 58.2 completion rate and 77.3 passer rating on 55 attempts as Roethlisberger's stand-in last season.
Roethlisberger directs a high-octane, pass-heavy attack, relentlessly attacking defenses with accurate strikes down the field. From what we've seen in preseason and regular-season action over the past few seasons, coordinator Todd Haley will scale back the offense for Jones, opting to build game plans around the backfield duo of Le'Veon Bell and DeAngelo Williams.
Since the start of the 2015 season, the Steelers have averaged 27.5 points, 405.4 total yards, 308.1 passing yards and 97.3 rushing yards per game with Roethlisberger under center. Without Roethlisberger, those numbers plummet to 20.5 points, 315.3 total yards, 162.8 passing yards and 152.5 rushing yards, per NFL Research.
Roethlisberger is an MVP candidate and one of the most important offensive players in football. The first-place Steelers can survive his absence in the short term. If he ends up missing extended time, though, the AFC North door will swing wide open for the Ravens and Bengals.
With the torn meniscus, Ben Roethlisberger will fail to play a full 16 games for the ninth time in 12 years as the full-time Steelers starter (not counting rookie year). But he's never missed more than four games in a year.
