The Pittsburgh Steelers are in the quarterback abyss right now, having benched Mitch Trubisky for the second time since signing him as a free agent in 2022. Still awaiting the return of Kenny Pickett, they turned to Mason Rudolph for mop-up duty at the end of Saturday evening’s dismal 17-point loss to the Indianapolis Colts.
Enter the Duck?
As the only game in town, it seems a number of former Steelers tuned in to watch their old team get embarrassed in the national spotlight. That includes Devlin Hodges, who emerged as something of a folk hero during the 2019 season, for a brief spurt.
He chimed in at the end of the game with a simple and amusing little tweet just to say “hey.” Although he retired from the National Football League, he could still return and play, in theory. The Steelers have a couple of inside linebackers right now who were retired, as well, and perhaps a couple more who should be—but I digress.
It’s unlikely that Hodges intended anything serious with his tweet, but it just speaks to the state of the quarterback position in Pittsburgh right now. It’s not even ideal when Pickett returns, quite frankly, but when you have to bench your backup, things are bad.
That’s what happened in 2019 after Ben Roethlisberger’s season-ending injury, head coach Mike Tomlin benching Rudolph in favor of the then-rookie Hodges, who was a college free agent that year out of Samford.
Not even a member of the initial 53-man roster, he was signed to the practice squad in Week Two after the team traded Joshua Dobbs to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Just to bring it full circle, Dobbs spent that season as the backup to Gardner Minshew after Jacksonville lost Nick Foles, and Minshew, a rookie at the time, just beat the Steelers with the Indianapolis Colts as a backup.
Hodges ultimately started six games that season, going 3-3, but winning his first three. He was 57-for-80 for 682 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions prior to his final three games, an extended losing skid, at the end of which he was benched in favor of Rudolph.
In those final three starts, he went 43-for-80 for 381 yards with one touchdown and six interceptions, taking nine sacks and fumbling twice. He did not play in the NFL again but remained on the Steelers’ practice squad in 2020.
After failing to make the Los Angeles Rams squad the following year, he spent some time in the Canadian Football League, but struggled, playing in only four games without throwing a touchdown. The Ottawa Redblacks placed him on the retired list in April 2022.
