Former Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger won two Super Bowl titles over the course of his 18-season career, which included 6 Pro Bowl selections and an incredible rookie season that made him the youngest starting QB to win the Super Bowl. Despite all this, an NFL legend believes that Roethlisberger is not fit to be a first-ballot HOF, now that he is eligible for the 2027 Canton Class following his 2021 retirement.

LeSean “Shady” McCoy gave his thoughts on the first-time eligible players on the 2027 Pro Football Hall of Fame ballot during a recent episode of the Speakeasy podcast. A two-time Super Bowl champion himself, the former star running back argued that Ben Roethlisberger fails to check a crucial box that every player should meet if they hope to earn a first-ballot ticket to Canton.

“You should never be in the Hall of Fame if you never had no All-Pros. Think of how that sounds! All-Pro, for the guys that don’t play football… All-Pro is the best in the league. You feel me? … But I’m being serious, how the hell he not have All-Pro? So take him off… For me, I can’t push your Hall of Fame with the best players of all time if you never had an All-Pro. Think about that though. That mean you never was the best quarterback or never was the best player in your position ever,” LeSean McCoy said of Ben Roethlisberger on the Speakeasy Podcast.

Ben Roethlisberger played in perhaps the greatest Quarterback era the league has ever seen. And despite being one of the best, he never had seasons that were good enough to get First Team or Second Team All-Pro honours. He played in an era with Peyton Manning (7x 1st-Team All-Pro, 3x 2nd-Team All-Pro), Tom Brady (3x 1st-Team All-Pro, 3x 2nd-Team All-Pro), Aaron Rodgers (4x 1st-Team All-Pro, 1x 2nd-Team All-Pro), and Drew Brees (1x 1st-Team All-Pro, 4x 2nd-Team All-Pro) to name a few of the QBs he was competing against.

For his incredible first starting season, where he had a 13-0 record in the 13 games he started, Roethlisberger got the 2004 AP Offensive Rookie of the Year award, the 2004 Sporting News Rookie of the Year, and the PFWA Offensive Rookie of the Year award.

To make matters worse, Roethlisberger’s personal statistical best years overlapped with some historic personal seasons of others.

In 2007, Big Ben’s 32-TD season was eclipsed by Tom Brady’s 50-TD year. In 2014, Ben Roethlisberger led the NFL with 4,952 passing yards, but Rodgers captured 1st team All-Pro honors with more Passing TDs (38) as well as a 112.2 passer rating (higher than Big Ben’s 103.3 passer rating) while claiming NFL MVP. Finally, in 2018, despite throwing for a career-high and league-leading 5,129 yards, Patrick Mahomes’ 50-TD, 5,097 passing yards season per Pro Football Reference left Roethlisberger empty-handed once again.

Former Dallas Cowboys QB Troy Aikman is the only NFL QB to have been included on the first-ballot HOF without any First or Second team All-Pro honours. However, he had won 3 Super Bowls as a QB along with the 1997 Walter Payton Award, given for elite on-field play combined with significant philanthropic and community work. Aikman also had 6 consecutive Pro Bowl appearances.

While Roethlisberger certainly has a claim to be the first-ballot pick, after all he is 7th All-Time in passing yards (64,088 yards), some oppose his case, like LeSean McCoy.