Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger returned to practice this week, participating on a limited basis both Wednesday and Thursday, less than four weeks after suffering a sprained MCL and a bone bruise in his knee.
And now the question becomes whether Ben actually could play on Sunday against the Cardinals.
He surely wants to play, for a couple of reasons. First, his backup engineered a last-minute game-winning drive on Monday night, which naturally will make Roethlisberger inclined to send his backup back to the bench. Second, Roethlisberger’s former offensive coordinator and good friend, Bruce Arians, is coming back to town for the first time since the Steelers fired him without calling it a firing.
The Steelers and Roethlisberger are keeping his intentions close to the vest, which has a real strategic benefit by keeping the Cardinals in the dark. Soon, the Steelers will apply a label to Roethlisberger’s availability for Sunday (“questionable” is the guess here), and then the question becomes whether that label translates to Ben playing on Sunday when the Cardinals come to town.