Even my manager at work was talking about how he thought Ben (among many more) was better than Brady. He basically went on to say that he thought Brady was overrated, had no natural gifts, could not escape the rush, and had no work ethic. He said that you could plug anyone into the Patriots system and that person would succeed. To each his own, I guess.
Perception based on media misconception, fueled by jealous and envious fans of opposing teams on internet message boards. Ask him about Brady's work ethic, for example. Or what a quarterback needs to do to avoid the pass rush.
His answer to the first question will most likely be about how he's a jet-setter who never works out, etc. That's easily refuted based on how the Pats players themselves voted Brady as the hardest worker on offseason workouts year after year.
In terms of avoiding the rush, his comment shows how little he knows about football, so that may be even more difficult for him to comprehend. Just because Roethlisberger pulls down the ball and runs more than a QB like Brady or Manning, does that make him better at avoiding the rush? No, but it may be an indicator his decision making is not as good. Manning and Brady avoid the rush subtlely within the pocket. Meanwhile Roethlisberger makes decisions to run like he did in the first quarter tonight - resulting in a loss of 19 yards.
Regarding the 'you could plug any QB in' comment so often thrown out there by Pats and Brady haters, my responses to anyone that says that are (1) so you're saying that Belichick is the greatest football coaching mind of all time since he devised a system within the constraints of the salary cap era where any QB could throw 50 touchdowns?; and (2) if it's so easy a caveman could do it then why haven't other teams, like the Steelers, come up with the same system on offense to go along with their defense?
So far tonight I've seen Roethlisberger make multiple mistakes and it's not even halftime. One pass in the first quarter he either completely overthrew a covered Ward, completely underthrew an open Wallace, or threw to the covered receiver rather than the open guy; spun to his left and then tried to hand off to his right, resulting in a busted play; stared down his receiver in one play after another (even the one he got way with that resulted in a TD); and rather than getting rid of the ball decided to scramble, resulting in a 19-yard loss.
Yes, he is big and hard to tackle, but does that make up for the decision making, locking in on one target, and lack of accuracy on his passes?
You're probably never going to convince your co-worker otherwise, and since he's your manager it may not even be worth trying. Roethlisberger is still a good QB but he is certainly not the best, and it is certainly up for debate whether he is in the top five right now.
