Quarterback controversy something new for Steelers coach Mike Tomlin

With a Super Bowl ring to his credit, job security and a 20-4-1 career record against the Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin doesn’t have many reasons to be envious of Cleveland Browns coach Freddie Kitchens.

Seven words Kitchens said during a conference call with Pittsburgh media this week certainly seem to qualify.

“We don’t have a quarterback controversy here,” Kitchens said.

The same could not be said this past week in Pittsburgh, not after Tomlin declined to name a starter for Sunday’s game against the Browns while speaking after last week’s win in Cincinnati.

Welcome to Quarterback Controversy 2019, Pittsburgh.

It had been 17 years since the Steelers changed starting quarterbacks for a reason other than injury, but when Tomlin told Devlin Hodges to warm up after an awful throw by Mason Rudolph ended the Steelers’ first drive of the second half against the Bengals, it became talk-show fodder and water-cooler talk across Western Pennsylvania.

In Pittsburgh, few things are juicier than a good, old quarterback controversy.

It’s a tradition dating back at least a half a century.

“Go back to the ’70s,” four-time Steelers Super Bowl champion Rocky Bleier said. “(Terry) Hanratty was drafted in ’69, and he was the local favorite coming out of Notre Dame. He won the national championship his sophomore year. Then, (Terry) Bradshaw comes in 1970 as the No. 1 pick.”

Bleier broke it down in a way others would in the following years. There was Bradshaw to Joe Gilliam, Cliff Stoudt to Mark Malone, Bubby Brister to Neil O’Donnell and Kordell Stewart to Tommy Maddox.

“Bradshaw, in my estimation, the arm, he had the strength,” Bleier said. “He was an agile, a big running QB. Hanratty had the smarts and maybe not the arm and the strength that Bradshaw had.”

This year’s debate comes with an asterisk because future Hall of Famer Ben Roethlisberger is out for the season after undergoing elbow surgery. Rudolph, who won a training-camp competition to back up Roethlisberger, capped nine games of mediocre play by throwing five interceptions over a five-quarter span against Cleveland and Cincinnati.

Tomlin’s hand was forced in turning to Hodges.

Six weeks earlier, an agitated Tomlin squashed any idea of a QB controversy when asked if Rudolph would regain the starting role after being cleared from concussion protocol.

At one point, Tomlin responded to a Hodges vs. Rudolph question with eye roll and, “Seriously, guys … ”

Even Tuesday when announcing the decision to start Hodges, Tomlin twice refused to answer questions surrounding the methodology of the choice. Tomlin also repeatedly stressed Hodges’ ascension might be temporary, and he made sure to emphasize Rudolph’s demotion “means nothing” about the organization’s view of his future.

It was obvious Tomlin was determined to minimize the slightest potential of a rift developing in his locker room or outside of it.

Steelers cornerback Joe Haden played with the Browns for seven seasons. There were 14 starting quarterbacks during his time there.

“We liked the way Coach T did it,” Haden said, “because he’s very transparent.”

It wasn’t like that in Cleveland?

“No,” Haden said with a wry smile. “Not anything like that. It was what it was.”

The last time the Steelers made a QB switch for performance reasons was September 2002.

Despite finishing fourth in NFL MVP voting the season before, Stewart was benched after an 0-2 start and the Steelers trailing at home to the Browns in Week 3. Maddox led the Steelers to a comeback victory that day and into the playoffs that January.

Coincidence or not, the Steelers defense played better from the moment Maddox took over (21.8 points, 200.7 yards allowed per game) than in the two games Stewart played (30.0 points, 403.5 yards). Quarterback is such an important position it’s possible the starter can have an intangible effect for a unit that never takes the field with him.

“He’s just got that moxie,” Pro Bowl linebacker T.J. Watt said of Hodges.

Even Tomlin likes to talk about the “spark” Hodges provides.

“We have a job to do, no matter who the quarterback is,” linebacker Bud Dupree said. “We play for all our guys: Ben, Mason, Duck. But when you have a guy come in and make a play right away like Duck did (79-yard touchdown pass on his third snap vs. the Bengals), it gives everyone a lift.

“As a defense, without Ben, we know we need to step up. And we love Mason, too. But right now, Duck has something that everyone wants to play for him.”

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