Apparently, we’re about to find out this season what Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger can do without his favorite offensive coordinator Bruce Arians.

To hear the Steelers tell it, Arians chose to retire, but Arians later said the Steelers did not offer him a contract.

Either way, that did not sit too well with Roethlisberger, who lobbied for the Steelers to retain Arians a couple of seasons ago, which they did.

The duo helped the Steelers win the Super Bowl against the Arizona Cardinals three years ago and made a return trip last year where they would lose to the Green Bay Packers.

This year, the Steelers, despite a long list of injuries, including Roethlisberger’s high ankle sprain, made a return trip to the postseason, but fell to the underdog Denver Broncos in overtime.

I’m sure a scapegoat was needed. Even though the defense struggled at times during the first half and overtime, most people wondered why this high-powered Steelers offense sputtered at times.

To be honest, the Steelers offense was non-existent at times.

Roethlisberger had another great season, throwing for 4,077 yards, completing 324 of 513 passes and 21 touchdowns. He had a pair of 1,000-yard receivers in Antonio Brown (72 catches, 1,193 yards, eight touchdowns) and Mike Wallace (69-1,108-2).

Even the running game fared well. Rashard Mendenhall rushed for 928 yards on just 228 carries (4.1 yards per carry) and Isaac Redman added 479 yards on 110 carries (4.4 ypc).

The passing game ranked 10th in the league with 253.4 yards per game and rushing was 14th at 118.9 yards per contest, but the Steelers ranked 21st in points scored.

Granted, with the defensive strength of the AFC North — all four teams were in the top 12 defensively, the Steelers had their work cut out for themselves. In fact, in 11 of the regular-season games, the Steelers faced off against the top-11 defenses.

Points, obviously, were harder to come by, but the Steelers lacked that consistent dominance that an offense like that should possess.

Roethlisberger, to his credit, also praises his offensive linemen, passes off the credit to them as well as the skill players and accepts blame when anything goes wrong.

That’s what makes him a great leader.

That said, how will he fare with a new offensive coordinator? The Steelers most likely will hire from within the organization, otherwise, they would have jumped on a few recent candidates that have been hired, namely fired Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Caldwell, who accepted a quarterbacks coach job with the Baltimore Ravens.

Personally, after the numbers the Steelers posted, I would have kept Arians around, but the team expects more, perhaps even a shift back to the running game.

Time will tell if the Steelers made the right move, but the team cannot afford a drop in production.

Sam Tallarico is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.