Let’s not get ahead of ourselves
PITTSBURGH – Just when you thought it was safe to rip the last of four meaningless exhibition games, down goes the would-be fill-in starting quarterback. Byron Leftwich suffered a knee injury while completing his second pass of Thursday’s preseason finale against Carolina.
Two points to make about that injury: Good thing it wasn’t Ben Roethlisberger (with all due respect to the Leftwich family) and doesn’t that anoint Dennis Dixon as Pittsburgh’s starting quarterback until Roethlisberger’s suspension is over?
Hold on right there. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
First of all, nobody knows the severity of Leftwich’s injury. Well, those who may know aren’t saying.
Secondly, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin may have come into Thursday’s game with his mind made up. He may have known for a while whether Leftwich or Dixon or Charlie Batch would get the call a week from Sunday when the Steelers host Atlanta in a game that counts in the standings.
Maybe Leftwich wasn’t the guy.
Maybe that’s why Dixon came in, engineered a touchdown drive and got out so quickly.
Maybe that’s why Batch, seemingly given up on until late in the penultimate meaningless game last Sunday, got the bulk of the snaps against the deepest part of Carolina’s depth chart.
Gotta have him game ready. Maybe.
A lot of fans have been intrigued by how the Steelers would come to name the guy who gets to fill in for Roethlisberger while the star quarterback serves his suspension.
By the way, Roethlisberger and the team will find out later today the exact length of the suspension when he meets with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in New York. If we’re lucky, they may even announce it to us.
So, if the six-gamer is cut to four (as expected), that’s one thing. If it stays at six, that’s another. If it is reduced to three games (what the Steelers want) or even two games (still possible), that’s kind of a different animal altogether.
That would explain why Tomlin saw fit to play Roethlisberger at all in any of the preseason games. It would also highlight the futility in trying to make sense of any snap counts that fans, players or coaches may have been keeping on any or all of the quarterbacks.
The bottom line, though, comes down to this, at least in my opinion:
Experience trumps potential.
Even though Dixon showed vast improvement from OTAs and mini-camps to training camp, he’s just too green to trust at this stage of his career, regardless of what his agent may say.
If Leftwich is healthy enough, he will start against Atlanta. If not, it will be Batch.
The Steelers didn’t trade for Leftwich or keep Batch around because they look good in the uniforms. They are both been there, done that guys.
Sports editor Mike Ciarochi may be reached at mciarochi@heraldstandard.com.