Five burning questions for preseason finale
By Edward Hunt
The Steelers have their last preseason game against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium. Here is a look at five burning questions for this game.
The Steelers have their fourth preseason game and that means this is a game where the majority of their starters will sit in anticipation of their regular-season opener against the New England Patriots. This means that their backups will get to play as well as the players on the roster bubble. I would expect the players on the roster bubble to get the majority of the work.
This game is familiar as the Steelers usually play the Panthers the last week of the preseason. These games are also usually on Thursday so the team gets plenty of rest before the season starts.
The two teams have a connection as David Tepper who was a partial owner in the Steelers is now the majority owner of the Carolina Panthers. He still has a presence in Pittsburgh, as the business school at Carnegie Mellon is called the Tepper School of Business.
Let’s take a look at the five burning questions heading into the game.
Who will emerge as the #3 quarterback for the Steelers in 2019?
The Steelers are in a quarterback competition, but it looks like Mason Rudolph has earned the #2 job. That job is still up for grabs going into the fourth game, but I am more certain of that role than the #3 job.
There are two things I see the Steelers doing for the number three job. One is they keep Josh Dobbs as the #3 and have him compete with Mason Rudolph in practice for playing time. Dobbs has flashed a strong arm and the ability to make a play with his legs. The problem has been his consistency.
The second scenario is the Steelers trade Josh Dobbs and keep Devlin Hodges as the #3. Hodges has looked as good as a rookie quarterback can and as good as any of the backups the Steelers have had in the last five years. He has been better than Landry Jones, Josh Dobbs, and Mason Rudolph as a rookie. The problem he has is he is buried on the depth chart behind quarterbacks who were drafted and went to power five schools.
The problem is that Devlin Hodges has only played late in games and didn’t get to play in the third game. He will need to shine in this game if he wants to earn the third quarterback job.