In two months, the Pittsburgh Steelers will get together for their 2019 training camp. This group has had more than five months to think about how 2018 went and more importantly how it ended. We are going to break down each positional unit between now and the start of camp to see where the strengths of this team lie and which units still need help.
First up we have the quarterbacks.
Starter-Ben Roethlisberger is coming off his best season as a pro. Roethlisberger threw for 5,129 yards and 34 passing touchdowns while posting his best QB rating since 2014.
Roethlisberger signed a massive new contract in the offseason and looks to have three more seasons in him. Nationally, Roethlisberger is rarely discussed among the truly elite of the NFL but his ability to win games and elevate the level of the players around him is as good as any quarterback in the league.
Backups-There should be a great battle between Mason Rudolph and Josh Dobbs for the backup spot this offseason. Dobbs stepped up huge during the last preseason to win the spot but Rudolph was drafted to replace Roethlisberger and I suspect he will get a fair shot at supplanting Dobbs as the backup.
The Steelers also signed Devlin Hodges this offseason. But the reality is short of catastrophic injury, Hodges is a camp arm who needs to show up in order to possibly land with another team.
Outlook-Unlike some other positional units we are going to talk about in the coming days, the quarterback is set. No one wants to see the Steelers go without Roethlisberger for an extended period of time but it really feels like the quarterback depth chart is the best it’s been during Roethlisberger’s tenure.
