Prognosticators with enormous influence across the NFL have weighed in on the No. 1 question facing the Steelers this year -- how quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will fare his sophomore season -- and the results are not too pretty.

	Big Ben in the 'Madden 06' game Graphic: Virtual Big Ben limited by ranking

The findings could reverberate in locker rooms league-wide, where the experts' opinions are hotly debated in contests that go late into the night.

The experts rate "Big Ben" as a slightly above-average quarterback. Last year's rookie sensation isn't even among the highest-rated Steelers, they say.

Who's behind this? The Cleveland Browns fan club? No, these experts are the makers of "Madden 06," one of the most popular video games in the country and one played feverishly around locker rooms across the National Football League.

Producers of the Madden game, which was released two weeks ago, rank Roethlisberger the 12th best quarterback in the 32-team league. The ratings affect the performance of the characters within the video game and, more importantly to many inside football, are the foundation for a whole lot of trash-talking on and off the real field.

"Big Ben got completely disrespected," said Jon Robinson, the editor in chief of the game information site IGN Sports (sports.ign.com), who often plays the game with pros.

The main reason for the Roethlisberger wariness? The makers of "EA Sports Madden NFL 06," in an attempt to make the game more realistic this year, have given extra weight to each quarterback's vision around the field, a skill typically developed a few years into a QB's career, and not enjoyed by second-year quarterbacks like Big Ben.

So, while Roethlisberger gets great marks for his speed, throwing power, accuracy and other skills, his awareness gets an 80 percent grade, compared with the 99 or 98 given to Peyton Manning or Tom Brady.

That fits with Roethlisberger's breakdown at the end of last season, when he threw 10 interceptions in the last five games of the year, including two playoff games.

Before tossing this article aside, saying it shouldn't matter what a dumb video game says, consider this: The ratings are based on real-life scouting reports, studies by the Sporting News and ESPN, interviews with coaches and players, and actual statistics, such as players' 40-yard-dash times. A Sports Illustrated critic this month called it the best football video game ever.

The game -- the only one licensed by the NFL -- also is massively popular among fans, selling an estimated 1.7 million copies in its first week, and especially popular among players themselves. The Steelers, like most other teams, have video games set up at their South Side practice facility. Many players have "Madden 06" matches going near constantly in their St. Vincent College dorm rooms, between training camp practices.

Steelers veterans get so caught up in the games that they send rookies to get their snacks, or order pizzas, during evening Madden tournaments. Team officials even planned to set up additional game consoles for the players, so they could play the game while waiting for pre-game haircuts on Friday.

"We play the game day in, day out," running back Willie Parker said last week. "We've got a little push-up rule: You lose, you've got a hundred push-ups. If you lose by three touchdowns, you've got 200 push-ups."

Players also watch closely for themselves in the NFL-sanctioned game -- and how they are rated, on the 100 point scale -- and try to show up the video version of their opponents whenever possible.

"We do a lot of smack talking when it comes to Madden," Parker said.

The game's producers are proud of how realistic the 16-year-old game has become and how seriously real football players take it. The realism is especially apparent when it comes to passing.

For the past couple of years, the most popular Madden quarterback has been the fleet-footed Michael Vick, whose video game character was almost supernatural, avoiding sacks while still throwing precision passes like the slow-poke Manning.

Game makers added the emphasis on quarterback awareness to change that. Each quarterback has a shaded "vision cone" he must throw into. If he doesn't, the ball can go into the stands or the arms of a defender. Roethlisberger's cone looks like a single slice of pizza; Manning's looks like the rest of the pie.

"One of the goals of this product was to level the playing field," said the producer of "Madden 06," Phil Frazier, in a telephone interview last week. "Historically, the fast quarterback is the one everyone has used. ... They were quick and could run, while just as good passing as Peyton Manning. They had a distinct advantage in passing, while others suffered in the running game."

The real Roethlisberger, like Vick, was great on the run last year, using his improvisational abilities to help win games, but faltering late in the season when teams sat back, waiting for him to make a mistake. In emphasizing the new vision rating, EA Sports gave more points to veterans with more feeling for the game, driving Roethlisberger's overall rating down.

Roethlisberger has helped EA Sports promote the game, playing in its "Madden Bowl" video game playoff in February and giving playing tips on "Madden 06" on the company's official Web site.

"I'm a little bit above-average, I think," Roethlisberger said after a practice last week, when asked about his 88 rating in the latest game. But he is clearly not a fan of the quarterback changes.

"I think a lot of guys don't like it as much because it makes it much harder. I know they're trying to make it more realistic and stuff, but it makes it harder, and I don't know if it's as fun," he said.

Should Roethlisberger prove the critics wrong and improve his awareness this year, it could lead him to the ultimate prize -- not the Super Bowl of course, but the cover of the next Madden video game. (Roethlisberger said the cover "doesn't really matter" to him.)

That happened four years ago, when producers had to add a second-year quarterback to the latest Madden game, after he wasn't included in the original version but started burning up the league on his way to a Super Bowl win.

That was Tom Brady, who has not appeared on the cover, either.