According to ESPN reporter Jeremy Fowler, players withing the Pittsburgh Steelers organization were on board with the idea of Devlin Hodges as the starting quarterback even before head coach Mike Tomlin made the announcement he was benching Mason Rudolph in favor of Hodges for this week’s game against the Cleveland Browns.
The real key for Hodges over Rudolph seems to be his confidence. Rudolph didn’t look like himself against the Browns two weeks ago and he did look like himself last week against the Cincinnati Bengals. Hodges might not be a superior talent over Rudolph but he comes in confident and with the confidence of his teammates.
According to Fowler, the Steelers’ defense believes it can win games as long as the offense takes care of the football. Right now, if you had to guess which quarterback is less likely to give it back to the other team, you’d have to go with Hodges. But this holds true for the entire offense. After Benny Snell Jr. had such a big game last week Tomlin pointed out his ball security was a big reason the team kept going back to him over other backs on the roster.
