The NFL's 5 Best Deep-Ball Quarterbacks From 2016

5. Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers

Passing NEP per Attempt: 0.84 | Success Rate: 45.69%

Antonio Brown is basically a long-ball PED, so Ben Roethlisberger probably shouldn't even be eligible. Roethlisberger went deep often, and he did so with solid efficiency.

In addition to ranking fifth in Passing NEP per drop back, he was 11th in Success Rate of the 29 quarterbacks who met our criteria. No quarterback in the league who had at least 200 drop backs had a higher deep-ball rate than Roethlisberger with 22.83% of his attempts going at least 16 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. From a deep-ball perspective, this guy is kind of the ideal.

As a shock to not a single person who has played fantasy football the past two years, Roethlisberger's efficiency on deep passes had a heavy split between when he was at home versus on the road. He's known for being significantly better when the Pittsburgh Steelers are at Heinz Field, and as you can see, that was true here, too.

The split in attempts is partially because Roethlisberger played six games at home compared to eight on the road. The production discrepancy, though, is more of a mystery, though it has persisted long enough to rule out being a small-sample fluke. Roethlisberger still would have ranked 12th on long passes if we counted just his metrics on the road, but he absolutely torches fools at home.

There have been plenty of rumblings about Brown's future with the team due to several nit-picky criticisms, but his departure would obviously have a big effect on Roethlisberger's deep-pass superiority. Here's how Roethlisberger's passing metrics looked this year when targeting Brown versus other options.

Don't overthink it; Brown is awesome, and he's a big part of the reason Roethlisberger is on this list.