Pittsburgh Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger Reveals He Has Torn Ligaments, Sprained AC Joint In Shoulder

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger revealed the extent of his shoulder injury during a radio interview on Tuesday morning and the news wasn’t encouraging. According to Roethlisberger, he has some torn ligaments and a sprained AC joint and doesn’t know if he’ll be able to play against the Denver Broncos on Sunday.

“I’ll go in tomorrow with the intent to see what I can do,” Roethlisberger told KDKA-FM in Pittsburgh. “I honestly don’t know. I haven’t tried to throw a football since the game, and maybe that’s not even the right thing to do right away.

“I’ll see the doctors and trainers tomorrow, we’ll evaluate kind of how I feel. If anything, maybe I can practice and hand off and still get some mental reps that way. So we’ll really just kind of see how it goes tomorrow.”

Roethlisberger said that it didn’t necessarily hurt to reach back to throw, but more when he pushed forward to let go of the ball when he came in for the final drive against the Cincinnati Bengals.

“It didn’t hurt when I reached back to throw,” Roethlisberger said of the final possession. “But it was pushing forward to throw and then the end of the throw. So I definitely felt like I was shortening up my motion up a little bit, which is why we threw some screens, and couldn’t really get the ball down the field. … I think it just more affected how I could throw it.”

If Roethlisberger is unable to play, the Steelers figure to turn to Landry Jones as their starting quarterback.