Now that the 2020 training camp has begun, following a second consecutive season in which they failed to even reach the playoffs, it’s time to take stock of where the Pittsburgh Steelers stand. Specifically where Steelers players stand individually based on what we have seen happen over the course of the past season, and with notice to anything that happens going forward.
A stock evaluation can take a couple of different approaches and I’ll try to make clear my reasonings. In some cases it will be based on more long-term trends, such as an accumulation of offseason activity. In other instances it will be a direct response to something that just happened. So we can see a player more than once over the course of the summer as we move forward.
Player: QB Devlin Hodges
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: The very fact that Paxton Lynch doesn’t appear to have done very well in training camp, and somewhat recently was even left out of the rep line, is an indication that Devlin Hodges will retain his place on the 53-man roster as the third quarterback.
We haven’t even heard much from or about Devlin Hodges since training camp opened. He is rarely noted in the very sparse recaps that we get of what is going on in training camp. But what we haven’t gotten is reports of him looking like he doesn’t belong, which is essentially what we have heard for Paxton Lynch, who is his competition for that number three quarterback job.
At this point, it is abundantly clear that there will be no competition for the backup quarterback job. That is very obviously Mason Rudolph. I think that most accepted that all along as obvious. But many were hoping that Lynch would take over the third spot from Hodges. Many of us even had him as the third quarterback on our 53-man roster predictions.
The interesting thing is that Hodges was one of the talks of training camp last year. We heard about him yapping at the defense and all of that, making plays. And remember, at the time, he was the fourth arm, also behind Joshua Dobbs, so he wasn’t getting a lot of practice reps.
He did get a good number of reps in the preseason games for that distinction, but he was given those snaps because of what he was doing on the practice field. I just find myself curious about how he has looked over the past month, because we really haven’t been provided much information.
With that said, it does seem at this point more likely than not that he will be making the team over Lynch. At the very least, he has more experience in the Steelers’ system—and even more in-game playing experience, with six starts and action in eight games.
