PITTSBURGH — Terrell Suggs is one of the fiercest rivals among opposing players the Steelers have faced over the last two or three decades.

In many ways, Suggs, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed probably are the three players who most define the beauty of the Steelers-Ravens rivalry. Oh, there are many other names and guys like Joe Flacco whom Steelers fans loved to hate, but those three seemed to be the faces of those incredible defenses.

I am sure Ravens fans would say the same things about Troy Polamalu, Hines Ward and James Harrison — along with Ben Roethlisberger.

The rivalry is defined not just because these are annually two of the best teams in the NFL but also because of the star power that usually shined in those games. But there was and is another level of nastiness and physicality that seems to be a part of all of these games, and guys like Suggs, Reed and Lewis seemed to be right at the center of some of the hardest and most game-changing plays in series history.

One of the series’s most defining moments came in a game in 2010 when defensive tackle Haloti Ngata broke Roethlisberger’s nose and Roethlisberger had a blood-soaked towel on the sideline. Suggs also knocked Roethlisberger out of a game in 2004, but Roethlisberger quite often got the best of the Ravens, as he was 17-10 against them in the regular season and beat them in the famous “Polamalu walk-off” AFC title game in 2008.

The Ravens and Steelers have combined to win four Super Bowls since 2000 and have been fixtures in the playoffs, and many people say the two organizations are mirror images of each other. They have dominated the AFC North and have combined to win 35 playoff games since the Ravens came into existence in 1996, and though these two teams “don’t like each other,” there has always been a healthy level of respect between them.

That’s especially true when it comes to Suggs and Roethlisberger, as both have openly talked about how much they had grown to respect each other even though they hated playing against each other. Suggs had 15 sacks against the Steelers, and most of them came against Roethlisberger.

All of that is why it is no surprise Suggs made headlines the other day when he joined the “Rory and Mal Don’t Know Ball” podcast and said in his mind, Roethlisberger is the most underrated quarterback in NFL history. Suggs said Roethlisberger is an all-time great who never gets mentioned among the all-time greats, but if you stack his record against the all-time greats, it holds up.

“I would say Roethlisberger is underrated. He’s got more rings than [Aaron] Rodgers. He’s got more rings than [Drew] Brees. He’s got more rings than [Dan] Marino. He’s got as many as Peyton and Eli [Manning],” Suggs said.“So I would say Roethlisberger. He’s the most underrated.”

I think that is an interesting concept because it is true — Roethlisberger is never really thrust into the conversation of the all-time greatest quarterbacks. You don’t generally hear people — unless they are from the 412 area code — ever really discuss him as one of the three or four best of all time.

But that’s because he isn’t and shouldn’t be included in that category. There are a few guys who are always mentioned in those discussions, and for the most part, they should be. Interestingly enough, Roethlisberger probably isn’t even the greatest Steelers quarterback, much less the NFL’s. But the player who is — Terry Bradshaw — is almost never mentioned as being on the shortlist of greatest of all time.

That being said, there is a huge difference between “not being mentioned as perhaps the greatest of all time” and not being appropriately rated or thought of as an all-time great. Roethlisberger is an all-time great. He is an elite quarterback and he will prove that in a few years when he is a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

He can’t be underrated when he is considered an all-time great. He can’t be underrated when he is universally thought of as one of the 20 best to ever do it and he is. He is that by any measure — he has stats, wins, championships. He stood the test of time. There is not a single argument against Roethlisberger as an all-time great.

But I did a quick search of “greatest quarterbacks of all time,” and in general (some lists only went to 10), Roethlisberger was in every single top 20. This one has him at No. 18; this one has him at No. 19; this one has him at No. 13. You could go through and find as many as you want, and what I consistently found is he is generally considered somewhere after No. 10 and before No. 20.

And that is exactly where he should be rated when you take a look at the history of NFL quarterbacks. Roethlisberger wasn’t better than Marino. He wasn’t better than Joe Montana. He wasn’t better than Tom Brady or Peyton Manning and he wasn’t better than Patrick Mahomes (whom many already have in their top five). I also don’t think he is better than Rodgers or Brett Favre or even Steve Young, to name a few.

I could go through each one and explain why I think they were better, and yes, there is a subjective matter to all of this. But those guys are usually the names thrown around as in the discussion for the best of all time. Clearly Brady’s numbers and his seven Super Bowls make it tough to not have him listed as the greatest of all time, but there are many who try to make an argument that he isn’t.

Roethlisberger is one of the 20 greatest quarterbacks to ever lace them up, and that in and of itself, considering how many players have played that position in the history of the NFL, puts him in an elite category most players could never dream of. He is definitely one of the 20 best, but he probably isn’t one of the 10 best. But that doesn’t mean anything other than there being a few guys who did it clearly better than him.

That’s why while I agree with Suggs that Roethlisberger is often overlooked in these discussions, I don’t agree that he is underrated. He is rated appropriately almost universally by those who observe the league the most closely over the years.

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