Yesterday morning, Ian Rapoport Tweeted an otherwise pretty innocuous Tweet that indicated there is a market for the backup quarterback position in the wake of the Green Bay Packers trading Brett Hundley to the Seattle Seahawks. Teddy Bridgewater was subsequently traded from the New York Jets to the New Orleans Saints.
Rapoport listed other depth quarterbacks around the league that had gained interest, including more obvious names with some starting experience such as Mike Glennon of the Chicago Bears and Tom Savage of the Houston Texans.
But he also mentioned the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Joshua Dobbs, a second-year former fourth-round draft pick who has only dressed for one game in his career, never throwing a pass in a meaningful game. And he dressed because Ben Roethlisberger was resting.
The Steelers have four quarterbacks on their roster and are more likely than not to only carry three into the season, so it would make sense to make a trade if they can find somebody. According to Jeremy Fowler, however, Dobbs is not the only quarterback that has received some trade interest.
Week promises to be eventful for Steelers QB picture. Dobbs starting last preseason game says team still evaluating him. Dobbs and Landry Jones have garnered interest from some NFL teams, I’m told, but Jones a tough trade b/c of experience. So many scenarios can play out
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) August 29, 2018
The ESPN reporter Tweeted later in the day that Landry Jones has also “garnered interest from some NFL teams”, according to his sources, though he did add that moving Jones would be tough because of his experience. It’s actually somewhat ambiguous what he means by that. Would teams be reluctant to take him on, or would the Steelers be reluctant to move him?
Either way, it is a fairly predictable outcome. When a team has an evident excess of talent at a position, it is going to attract some attention. The Steelers appear to have four viable quarterbacks worthy of a roster spot, so it’s only natural that some teams will have expressed interest in possibly acquiring one of the players more likely to be moved.
Last season, the team had excess at the cornerback and wide receiver positions. They were able to move commodities there in return for some late-round investments, dealing Sammie Coates and Ross Cockrell, respectively.
It’s rare for the Steelers to actually have an abundance of depth at any one position, but it does happen. That is happening right now at quarterback, so don’t be surprised if you see a player-for-pick or even player-for-player deal get down over the course of the weekend and perhaps into the early portions of next week.
I do think that Dobbs is probably the easier piece to move between the two because nobody is going to take on Jones as a developmental prospect. If somebody is acquiring him, it’s because they see him as a plug-and-play backup, and there are not many holes left around the league for a number two.
