The Pittsburgh Steelers landed QB Ben Roethlisberger in the 2004 NFL Draft — and the foundation that brought two Lombardi Trophies back to the city. But things could have played out very differently had the Cleveland Browns drafted their hometown prospect. It could have put the Steelers on a collision course with Aaron Rodgers in the 2005 NFL Draft the following year.

“We really thought [Eli] Manning would go to the Giants. We thought the Browns would take Ben,” former Steelers personnel exec Doug Whaley said Wednesday via 93.7 The Fan’s Morning Show. “We didn’t think San Diego was gonna take a quarterback because they had Drew Brees. So we were looking at Philip Rivers. So we were like, ‘Philip Rivers, that’s it, we got him.’ And we were really happy with that.

“Then when the Browns took [Kellen] Winslow, we all were like, wait a minute. Seriously, I remember looking around the room saying, ‘Where are the cameras? Is this one of those jokes?’ We couldn’t believe Ben fell to us.”

Pittsburgh had Roethlisberger rated higher than Rivers but thought for sure the Browns would end up taking the Ohio native. The board immediately broke in an unexpected way with the Chargers drafting Manning. At that point, many thought the Giants would take either Roethlisberger or Rivers. And the Browns were an obvious landing spot for Roethlisberger at No. 6 overall.

Not only did the course of NFL history nearly change with Roethlisberger landing elsewhere, but the Steelers could have missed out on the entire QB class of future Hall of Famers.

All three of Manning, Rivers and Roethlisberger ended up with Hall of Fame credentials to their name, but the Steelers got the best of the bunch with the third quarterback off the board. He would go on to lead them to a pair of Super Bowl championships and a third appearance in the big game.

They weren’t going to draft the next quarterback available if all three were gone. Their focus would have shifted elsewhere according to Whaley.

“There would’ve been a debate between, I think it was Tommie Harris and Shawn Andrews,” he said.

Harris, a defensive tackle, had an okay career with three Pro Bowl selections, but nowhere near the impact of somebody like Roethlisberger. OG Shawn Andrews had two Pro Bowls and one All-Pro selection, but personal struggles and chronic back injuries forced him out of the league prematurely.

The 2004 draft class would’ve been one of the worst of Kevin Colbert’s GM tenure instead of being one of the best.

Had they missed out on Roethlisberger or Rivers in 2004, Whaley thinks Rodgers very well may have ended up in Pittsburgh via the 2005 NFL Draft.

“We wouldn’t have had to [trade up]. We would’ve just sat there,” he said. “We had him higher than that. We were surprised he was slipping.”

Rodgers fell to No. 24 overall, and the Steelers probably would have been right in that range with a season under Tommy Maddox.

That probably would have cost them the 2005 Super Bowl with Maddox leading the team instead of Roethlisberger. And who knows if Rodgers would have had the same career with a different set of circumstances in Pittsburgh. But it is interesting to think that one colossal mistake by the Browns could have been the difference between Roethlisberger or Rodgers in Pittsburgh for the last two decades.

Instead, Rodgers is now with the Steelers for likely the final season of his Hall of Fame career with hopes of making one last push toward a championship. Perhaps their paths were always meant to cross.