It appears Mason Rudolph could be on the bench a little while longer.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin announced Tuesday that Devlin “Duck” Hodges will continue to start at quarterback for Pittsburgh when it takes on the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. Tomlin likes what he’s seen from Hodges, who is 2-0 with three touchdowns and a 63.5 percent pass completion rate this season.
And with the Steelers still (somehow) in the Wild Card race, the squad can use all the help it can get in the final four weeks of the season.
“Going on the road is something we respect, especially when you’re working with a young QB,” Tomlin said Tuesday, per ESPN’s Brooke Pryor. “Duck will continue to be our quarterback again this week. He’s performed well in hostile environments, but he just doesn’t have a big sample size.
There’s still plenty of preparation ahead of the 23-year-old, who replaced Rudolph against the lowly Cincinnati Bengals just two weeks ago. But Tomlin appears confident in Hodges’ abilities.
“I told Duck I had a lot of confidence in his abilities and his preparation and his talent, so I wanted to display that confidence by not talking him to death, not having a bunch of additional meetings and things of that nature,” Tomlin said, per Pryor. “I wanted to display that confidence by going about our routine. Not only confidence in him, but confidence in our preparation process, how we go about our business of game prep.
“He’s the starting quarterback. We’re interacting with him in the ways that we interact with a starting quarterback in preparation for a game.”
Hodges’ next start will come Sunday when the Steelers take on the Cardinals in Arizona. Kickoff from University of Phoenix Stadium is set for 4:25 p.m. ET.
