It’s been talked about for awhile now that come opening day with Ben Roethlisberger watching from home, the team will go with Byron Leftwich as the starter at QB against the Falcons at home. Maybe, maybe not. Right now I’m willing to bet it’s 50-50 between Leftwich, who wasn’t with the team last year, and Dennis Dixon, who started the teams critical loss in Baltimore in November.
With that, Mike Tomlin isn’t gonna play around with preseason games and all the rest to decide who is going to start against the Falcons. The teams official site reports he’ll make that decision by July.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin says he’ll decide on his Week one starting quarterback by the time training camp opens in late July. “Really, it’s not a three-man quarterback competition at this point,” Tomlin said. “We know what all three men (Byron Leftwich, Charlie Batch and Dennis Dixon) are capable of doing. All three men, at different points in time, have benefited us and helped us win football games or played winning football. We know what we’re working with. We’re going to spend the rest of this offseason teaching, re-acclimating in some cases, as with Byron Leftwich, and then we’re going to make decisions and move forward.”
It will be interesting to see what happens if he makes that decision, and that QB gets outshined in preseason. Can he go back on it? Would he? For now, I think Dixon is the answer, but from all indications, Leftwich it sounds like is in the drivers seat to be the opening day starter.
3 Comments
Leave a Reply
Show Your Team Spirit
Get Your Steelers Tickets
Steelers Gab Newsletter
Sign up to receive our Steelers Gab newsletter, and keep up to date with all the latest Pittsburgh Steelers news.
DG
May 14, 2010 at 8:14 am
I heard this, and agree with you that it appears that it’s Leftwich’s job to loose. Which drives me crazy. Why on earth do we have this kid on the roster, if he’s not the #1 backup in this situation? He’s not a rookie anymore, and this would seem to be a great opportunity to get him some playing time. And, p.s., that loss in Baltimore belongs to the Defense, not Dixon.
mark
May 14, 2010 at 10:44 am
I say that Tomlin will go with the safer, experienced Leftwich. I think I mentioned before that the decision to start Leftwich has a few positives, but the one I think we are not talking about is,having Dixon available to come off the bench and spark the offense if it needs it. Leftwich under center is probably more “Roethlisberger-like” than Dixon. Leftwich is experienced, strong, has the BIG arm and other than his lack of mobility, mirrors Ben in that the offense probably doesnt change much. With Dixon you have a smaller, yet more mobile Qb that has less experience and the offense might have to become more reliant on the things that they have recently been less than spectacular at!We all know what I mean, right?? Anyway, I will be happy with Byron or Dixon under center for the first month.I think both will bring a dimension to the team that should help them stay productive and able to win games. If the defense plays more like 2008 than 2009, then it wont matter who is starting those first 4 games! Does anyone actually think Batch can steal the starting job away though? I am and always have been a Batch fan. If he doesnt start,I hope the team does right by him. Oh yeah, one more thing, No matter who it is starting for the first 4-6 games, ALL Steeler fans will be happy to see #7 back on the field. The team is better with Ben and the fans know this as well, regardless of how you feel right now about him as a person.
DrGeorge
May 15, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Having D. Dixon in hand and knowing exactly what he is capable of doing, the Steelers still went out and signed Leftwich and then renegotiated his one year deal into a two year deal for good measure. That’s a very strange use of Mr. Rooney’s cash if Leftwich doesn’t start. His experience and similarity in QB style to Ben are valid and compelling reasons why Leftwich should start, notwithstanding Dixon’s promise. So I agree with Mark.
Despite the now famous Leftwich wind-up, which all the pundits in media land have denigrated, Leftwich fires a very hard and accurate fastball, finds receivers quickly, reads defenses well, and takes good care of the ball. On a team with a decent running game, he doesn’t even take many sacks, despite his lack of mobility. Since he can’t scramble, it is actually easier for the O-line to protect him, because they know exactly where he’s going to be.
Review your tapes of the two games he played for us in 2008, when Ben was injured. He came in with the score very close and finished both games with a big margin. The guy can flat out play football. In fact, he is probably better than Ben at running the dink-and-dunk attack because he gets rid of the ball quickly and doesn’t eschew an easy short gain for the hope of a long shot down field.
I’m not suggesting that Leftwich is better than Ben; I’m saying they are both quality QBs who play their own style of football very well and that both can succeed when surrounded with decent talent and a sound Defense.
Now, suppose the Steelers are 4-0 or 3-1 with Leftwich when the bye week rolls around and that the offense is running smoothly at that time. Then, Tomlin will face an interesting dilemma. He will probably hand the reins back to Ben, as expected, if only because we owe the big guy a fat wad of cash. But Tomlin would make that change with greater reluctance than he would ever publicly admit. And for Tomlin, right now, that would be a nice problem to have in Week 5.