Coordinator carousel

There are certainly palpable reasons for the decline in the performances of Dalton and Flacco.

Dalton lost two coordinators to head coaching positions — Jay Gruden (Washington) and Hue Jackson (Cleveland) — the past four seasons. He is now working on a fourth after Ken Zampese was fired when the Bengals didn’t score a touchdown in the first two games of the season. What’s more, he lost two of his top three receivers — Mohamed Sanu and Marvin Jones — and his best two offensive linemen — Andrew Whitworth and guard Kevin Zeitler — in free agency the past two years.

Flacco has had a couple of debilitating injuries the past two seasons (an ACL tear in 2015, back surgery after last season) that appear to make him less comfortable in the pocket. But probably more crippling is he’s had four coordinators the past five years. Unlike Dalton, only one, Gary Kubiak, did so because he moved on to a head-coaching position (Denver). The other three were fired, leaving Flacco with Marty Mornhinweg to run the offense.

While Ravens Coach John Harbaugh pooh-poohed the effect the coordinator carousel has had on Flacco, Roethlisberger said “I couldn’t imagine” how difficult that would be on a quarterback.

“It’s tough,” said Roethlisberger, who has had only three coordinators in 14 seasons with the Steelers. “There’s a comfort zone, a knowledge to be able to have the same offense for the most part, same coordinators, things like that. The quarterback position is about comfort and being able to be comfortable back there. Whether it’s calling the play, comfortable with the plays that gets called