With Mason Rudolph unavailable, Steelers have no choice but to turn back to Devlin Hodges

It might have been the only time Mike Tomlin laughed on Christmas Eve.

As the old saying goes, if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry — and the latter might have been in play for Tomlin on a day in which he had no choice but to turn to Devlin Hodges to start a regular-season finale in which the Pittsburgh Steelers could use a victory to grab a playoff spot.

So when he was asked during his weekly news conference whether Hodges’ recent propensity for interceptions was attributable to poor decisions or bad throws, Tomlin grinned.

“Does it matter?” Tomlin said before laughing.

On Sunday at the Baltimore Ravens, Hodges will make his fifth consecutive start at quarterback for the Steelers — but this time, it won’t be on merit. He’s starting because a shoulder injury suffered by Mason Rudolph during this past Sunday’s game landed Rudolph on the season-ending injured reserve list Tuesday.

Rudolph had replaced Hodges during the second quarter of the 16-10 loss at the New York Jets after Hodges had thrown his second interception. Dating to the previous week’s game – a loss at Buffalo – four out of five possessions had ended by way of Hodges interceptions.

Six of Hodges’ eight interceptions during his undrafted rookie season have come in the past six quarters. That led to the query directed to Tomlin about whether to attribute Hodges’ problems to his head or his arm.

“You know, seriously,” Tomlin said after laughing. “We’ve got to take care of the football. You can make a bad decision — but (with) a ridiculous, awesome throw, it’s irrelevant, you know what I mean? So I mean that in all sincerity — we’ve got take care of the football, and some of that minutiae is less important about intentions relative to performance.”

Hodges’ calling card prior to his past two games was mostly just that. He had thrown only two interceptions over his first five NFL games, three of which he started and two others in which he played roughly one half in relief of Rudolph.

Life was good for “Duck” up until the defeats to Buffalo (on Dec. 15) and the Jets, before which he had become the first non-replacement player undrafted rookie quarterback to win his first three starts. Hodges had a 7-to-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio and 103.2 passer rating in that time.

In his past two games, though, Hodges has one touchdown, six interceptions, a 41.7 rating and no wins.

“There’s nothing wrong with his preparation. There’s nothing wrong with his approach and his attitude and things of that nature,” Tomlin said. “But (whether he’ll perform better) won’t get answered until we get into the stadium. I can trick myself in terms of seeking comfort and looking for clues and things of that nature, (but) we are not in that world.”

. @MarkMaddenX: It took a while before the chickens came home to roost, but: No Ben, no chance. https://t.co/6rvsSvEKXq

— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) December 24, 2019

Hodges will get another week with all of the first-team practice reps, something that almost certainly would have not happened had Rudolph not been forced to leave Sunday’s game. Rudolph had completed 14 of 20 passes for 129 yards and a 29-yard touchdown to Dionate Johnson over the course of the five possessions.

The 10 points Rudolph led the offense to in those five drives matches the production Hodges has elicited over the past 18 drives.

Still, even if Tomlin had lost confidence in Hodges, his only other option was Paxton Lynch, whom the Steelers signed Sept. 17 after Ben Roethlisberger was placed on IR. And Tomlin said those three months haven’t been enough time for the former No. 26 overall draft pick to fully assimilate into the offense. Nor has it allowed much opportunity for Lynch to get practice reps, what with the young and inexperienced Rudolph and Hodges needing as much work as they could get.

“He’s got a lot of pedigree,” Tomlin said of Lynch, “that’s why he was taken in the first round. In terms of our intimate knowledge of it or our comfort with it, it’s not very high because of the time in which we acquired him and the nature of which we have to work when you prepare to win games.”

The Steelers added another arm to their unit Tuesday, signing former Ohio State star J.T. Barrett to their practice squad.

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