The Pittsburgh Steelers will play their first preseason game of 2019 Friday night at Heinz Field against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and on Wednesday head coach Mike Tomlin held a press conference to answer a few questions and go over a few other details associated with that contest. Early in his press conference Tomlin announced what the quarterback rotation is expected to be for Friday night.
“Specifically at the quarterback position, [Joshua] Dobbs will start the game,” Tomlin said Wednesday. “Mason Rudolph will play and then we’ll go from there. Ben [Roethlisberger] won’t play in the game.”
Tomlin announcing that Joshua Dobbs will start Friday night against the Buccaneers and will be followed by Mason Rudolph isn’t at all surprising. As to how long each will play Friday night at this point is the only real mystery. As for fourth-string quarterback Devlin Hodges, Tomlin made sound like the plan is for him to get a little bit of playing time Friday night as well.
“We’d like to get him some play,” Tomlin said of Hodges. “We’ll see how the flow of the game goes. We’re working with the intentions of doing that, but sometimes things unfold a little bit differently once you get inside a stadium. So those are the intentions. Man, he’s been deserving of the opportunity. I’m sure he’ll get it here this week or the next.”
As for who else might play or sit out Friday night, Tomlin gave his usual pre preseason game statement on that topic.
“We’re not going to exclude anybody from potentially participating in the game from a health standpoint,” Tomlin said Wednesday. “I know there’s been a number of guys that’s missed a day or two here. I’m not going to exclude any of those guys. We’re going to remain hopeful knowing that the opportunities to play in a stadium are few and far between. We’re gonna try to be as inclusive as we can be in terms of participation. There will be some established a veteran guys that won’t play in the game. Not a really to do with with them and their overall readiness, but really about providing snaps and seeing guys that we don’t know a lot about.”
Safety Sean Davis (finger) is one player that has missed a lot of practice time so far during training camp and Tomlin was asked specifically about him on Wednesday and if him being sidelined so long is just precautionary.
“It’s not for precaution, he had an open wound on his hand and it had to heal and he’s just starting to work his way back to us,” Tomlin said. “He needs to work. They all need to work.”
