The Pittsburgh Steelers have struggled to find their way in the post-Ben Roethlisberger era, particularly at quarterback.

But the rest of the roster has largely struggled, too, as Pittsburgh has been stuck in the purgatory of being a slightly better than average team, one that reaches the playoffs and then can’t get over the hump.

Though the Steelers have had plenty of talent on the roster, they just haven’t been able to get past the first round of the playoffs, going one-and-done in six straight postseason appearances.

They’ve made some mistakes from a player-acquisition standpoint, like swinging and missing on QB Kenny Pickett in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft and failing to address the quarterback position since.

But in a week in which dirty laundry behind the scenes has been aired out from back in the Super Bowl era for the Steelers, everyone is starting to take additional shots at future Hall of Fame quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

That includes former cornerback Steven Nelson, who believes Roethlisberger is to blame for why the Steelers have struggled in the last half-decade.

Hosting the latest episode of his podcast “The Corner Suite,” Nelson ripped Roethlisberger — and the organization — for allowing the quarterback to determine things at the end of his career. Nelson played for the Steelers in 2019 and 2020, two seasons in which the defense finished fifth and third in points per game allowed, respectively.

“So that defense, what I’m about to say is that it fell off tremendously after Ben’s cap issue. If people wanna know really why I was upset, it’s because the defense, I just rattled off how great that defense was,” Nelson said. “You had me, Joe Haden, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Terrell Edmunds, Mike Hilton in the slot. Great blitzer, instinctive player, on the smaller side, but a great player, great tackler. You had Cameron Sutton as a role player; could play inside corner, could play outside corner, can play dime, can play safety. He’s a Swiss Army knife. You got TJ Watt, Bud Dupree, Stephon Tuitt at the time, Cameron Heyward. We just drafted a young  Alex Highsmith. We had Robert Spillane, we had Mark Barron, who was at the end of his career, but still a capable player. We had just drafted Devin Bush in the first round.

“I was upset because they let Ben dictate keeping that roster together moving forward. That’s why I was upset. They didn’t kick me out of Pittsburgh. They tried to betray me, they tried to trade me and they tried to make me take a pay cut for who? Big Ben. A guy that was declining in his career.”

That defense was pretty darn good for the Steelers in 2019 and 2020. Nelson was a big part of it as he paired with Joe Haden to be a shutdown tandem at the cornerback position.

But coming out of the 2020 COVID season, things got a bit tight not only for the Steelers from a salary cap perspective, but also around the league. And the Steelers had a tough decision to make, particularly with Roethlisberger, who was set to count more than $41 million against the cap in the 2021 season, as Steelers Depot’s Dave Bryan laid out here.

While the Steelers got out to an 11-0 start in 2020, it was largely all smoke and mirrors on offense as Roethlisberger was doing a lot of dinking and dunking. Coming off of an elbow injury the year prior, he just wasn’t the same quarterback. He was aging, and his body was falling apart.

So, his price tag was going to be way too high for the type of talent he was at that point. But the Steelers saw it differently and kept him around, and had to make tough decisions elsewhere.

That centered on Nelson, whom they tried to trade before cutting him. 

That moment upset Nelson, and even all these years later, he’s frustrated with the organization looking out for what was best for Roethlisberger late in his career, rather than doing what was best for the team, which was to try and keep that defense together.

“This is no knock on Big Ben, that’s not what I’m saying. So for context, I was saying the team did not look out for the team’s best interest,” Nelson added. “Moving forward, the team was more interested in appeasing Big Ben and doing whatever Big Ben wanted. To me, that was just selfish and negligent. You had a good young team right there, a great team that was meshing really well, and you sabotaged the whole thing for one person.”

Things did break down after that for the Steelers as they went 9-7-1 in 2021. The defense finished 20th in the NFL in points allowed after moving on from Nelson, seeing Tuitt retire, and making other roster decisions aimed at saving money.

“They let one guy sabotage the entire organization,” Nelson added.

To be fair to Nelson, he kept it all on the field. He cited Roethlisberger’s declining performance and the money tied up in him as the reason the roster fell apart, and why the Steelers are in the situation they’re in at this point.

They weren’t able to find a successor to Roethlisberger late in his career because it would have upset Roethlisberger if they drafted his heir apparent, much like they tried to with Mason Rudolph.

Chalk it up to another former Steeler taking a bit of a shot at Roethlisberger, though. The organization has become a bit of a soap opera at this point with a bunch of former — and current – players having podcasts. It’s a shame to see.