Some of Mettenberger’s teammates seemed encouraged by the rookie’s progress. Wide receiver Nate Washington, who played with Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh, joined the Steelers as a rookie in 2005 when Big Big was in his second season. He said from what he has seen knowledge-wise that Mettenberger may be ahead of where Roethlisberger was at that time.

“It was ’05, and it was his second season and they had just come off a (15-1) season, and it was beneficial to him. The coaching staff at that time had done an outstanding job of working him in,” Washington said. “I will comment and say that I don’t think Ben coming in is the same as Zach Mettenberger. At this stage he’s at now, I think Zach understands the NFL a little more than maybe Ben did at that time, but the thing that Ben had at that time that was maybe a little more beneficial was he had an outstanding running game.

via Terry McCormick of 247sports.com.