Ben Roethlisberger is still serving a four game suspension.
Byron Leftwich has or had a sprained knee and has never proven to be particularly good at recovering in his career.
Dennis Dixon tore a ligament in his left knee, the same one that claimed his senior season at Oregon.
Charlie Batch is like 47 years old.
We’re running out of people to not complete passes every Sunday. If Leftwich isn’t back in form, the Steelers have to sign another QB. You can’t have Randle El as your #2 behind a man with glass arms. After the jump, thoughts on QB depth.
Byron Leftwich
Byron doesn’t really have a perfect record as far as health goes. He’s the best option to start if he’s healthy, but he’s not a young guy and he sprained his knee like a month ago. I’d be lying if I told you I was confident in his ability to play out a game.
Charlie Batch
All Charlie Batch does is come to work, practice the offense, help everyone on the team, and just step in and win a game whenev. And he gets no love, from me included. While he was just as putrid as the whole offense against the Titans, he looked more stable than Dixon. He even hit a WR in the end zone, even if it came back on a hold. Still, he may indeed be made of styrofoam and masking tape at this point, so even if he’s the starter, someone has to play depth.
Antwaan Randle El
Yikes. We face a very real possibility of Antwaan Randle El taking snaps at QB this week. If the Steelers don’t sign anyone else, you can bet he’ll be under center during practice this week. But if Leftwich isn’t back, someone is going to be signed anyway and El will automatically be #3.
Tyler Palko
Local kid. Palko was the backup last season when Dixon started against Baltimore, and it’s probably a safe assumption that he’s a free agent.
Levi Brown
Wait, really? There are two Levi Browns in the NFL? Well, I guess there’s only one, since the one that plays QB was not good enough for the Buffalo Bills. He gets mentioned because some dude on Twitter reported that Brown was working out for the Steelers this week. I’d link to it but I don’t have a smartphone so I don’t do much with Twitter.
Dion Lewis
“Let Dion throw it!” Hey, it’s not like he has any prior commitments on Sunday.
Sergei Gonchar
They talked about him being a good quarterback all the time, right? Couldn’t hurt to see what he’s up to this weekend.
Willie Stargell
Despite being dead for nine years, he may be the best available option should the Steelers decide to bring in someone from outside the organization.
Okay maybe that last one was in a bit of bad taste, but lighten up, your football team is 2-0 and you are seriously imagining what plays to call for your backup slot receiver. But seriously, the defense isn’t going to get 7 turnovers every game. We wish we could face GLORIOUS SAVIOR OF THE UNIVERSE, CHRIS JOHNSON, and his terrible QB rotation every week, but sadly all we get is second year QB Josh Freeman next week. Since we can’t count on that many turnovers (and averaging less than one point per turnover is not really a good recipe anyway), the Steelers really need to make some offense happen. One TD and like 40 field goals isn’t good offensive production. Hopefully this is just the lack of Roethlisberger and not underlying issues regarding line stability and consistency in running.
It’s tough to watch the Steelers’ offense. But we’re 2-0 and that’s the only stat that matters when all is said and done. We’ll have our best idea of Lefty’s health based on whether or not the Steelers sign someone this week. If it’s not Leftwich-Batch-Randle El, it’ll be Batch-Some Joke-Randle El. Here’s hoping Byron’s knee is all better by Sunday.
