Steelers bench Mason Rudolph, go with Devlin Hodges at QB
Their offense struggling immensely, the Pittsburgh Steelers made a change at quarterback.
With the Steelers trailing 7-3 early in the third quarter of a game at the winless Cincinnati Bengals, coach Mike Tomlin turned to undrafted rookie Devlin Hodges to replace Mason Rudolph.
Three plays later, Hodges directed the Steelers to something that Rudolph had done once over the prior nine quarters and 30 possessions: a touchdown.
Enter Devlin Hodges, and HELLO JAMES WASHINGTON ?
(via @thecheckdown)pic.twitter.com/PZcxIb98sn
— The MMQB (@theMMQB) November 24, 2019
Nicknamed “Duck” because he won a national youth duck-calling championship, Hodges led FCS in passing last year as a senior at Samford. He was cut at the end of the Steelers training camp, signed to their practice squad a week later after Josh Dobbs was traded and promoted to the active roster a week after that when Ben Roethlisberger underwent season-ending elbow surgery.
Hodges made his NFL debut after Rudolph suffered a concussion early in the second half of a Sept. 30 loss to the Baltimore, and he started the following week’s win at the Los Angeles Chargers. But Rudolph had started each of the five games since. The Steelers won the first three but lost 21-7 last week at the Cleveland Browns.
Rudolph was a third-round pick of the Steelers in 2018.
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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