The Pittsburgh Steelers will play their third preseason game of 2019 Sunday night on the road against the Tennessee Titans and while head coach Mike Tomlin did announce on Friday during his press conference that starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will make his debut in that contest, he wouldn’t reveal how the signal caller rotation will go after that.
“Ben will play,” Tomlin said Friday. “We don’t have a specific detail or division of Labor at this point in terms of quarterback participation beyond that – who’s going to play, how long they’re going to play. Our energies right now are just that first group with Ben and getting those guys in the game and getting some exposure there and hopefully get some success and then move on from there.”
Based on a few tips that Steelers quarterback Joshua Dobbs provided the media on Friday, early speculation is that Mason Rudolph will follow Roethlisberger into Sunday’s game. Dobbs is expected to follow Rudolph. Obviously, that’s not set in stone and Tomlin would not confirm on Friday if both Rudolph and Dobbs will both indeed play Sunday night against the Titans.
“Again, I’m not making any bold predictions about participation after that first wave because a lot of what happens depends on the quality of play and time of possession related things, Tomlin said.
Tomlin also advised on Friday to not read anything into the quarterback order that’s ultimately used Sunday night in Nashville against the Titans.
While we know that Roethlisberger will play Sunday night and we think we know that both Rudolph and Dobbs will as well, it will be interesting to see if fourth-string quarterback Devlin Hodges is able to get a few snaps in late in that third preseason contest.
Roethlisberger is only expected to play between two and four offensive series Sunday night likely around only a total of 20 offensive plays.
