The Ben Roethlisberger Performance Metric: New Data Points

An earlier post described the Steeler's performance before and after the return of prodigal player Ben Roethlisberger and quantified the "Ben Gap", which is the difference in the team's performance with and without Ben.

Generically, you'd think that a team would do much better with the multi-million dollar franchise player than they would without the key player. So far, the Steelers do just as well without Ben as they do with Ben. If I was an Owner, I'd be wondering what I was getting for my annual cost of 12.75 million (even if I did save 1.6M in salary during the four-game sabbatical).

Week 1: Atlanta	WIN	No Ben	75% WIN WITHOUT BEN
Week 2: Tennessee	WIN	No Ben
Week 3: Tampa Bay	WIN	No Ben
Week 4: Baltimore	LOSS	No Ben
Week 6: Cleveland	WIN	Ben	75% WIN WITH BEN
Week 7: Miami	WIN	Ben
Week 8: New Orleans	LOSS	Ben
Week 9: Cincinnati	WIN	Ben
Week 10: New England	LOSS	Ben
Week 11: Oakland	WIN	Ben
Week 12: Buffalo	WIN	Ben
Week 13: Baltimore	WIN	Ben

The table below identifies impending data points.

Week 14: Cincinnati	---	Ben
Week 15: NewYork Jets	---	Ben
Week 16: Carolina	---	Ben
Week 17: Cleveland	---	Ben

The Ben makes 250% of what Troy Polamalu is paid. Is that justified? If the team does as well without Ben as it does with Ben, is any of his salary justified? Because earlier in the year, when questions were asked, the Rooneys said it was all about winning football games.