Did Kevin Colbert and the Steelers even consider shaking up their quarterback room through free agency or the NFL Draft?
"No. Nuh-uh."
That was Colbert responding to the question from Mark Madden Wednesday on 105.9 The X. Throughout the interview, several themes became clear:
• The Steelers have faith that Ben Roethlisberger will not only be ready for Week 1 but can be better than we've seen him in recent years.
• Mason Rudolph, Devlin 'Duck' Hodges and Paxton Lynch are at the ready if that isn't the case.
• This is how Colbert and company want it to be. This is by choice.
Oh, and one more:
• Roethlisberger isn't fat and out of shape. At all.
"I know where Ben is," Colbert said. "I know where he's been in his career, and I never worried about his conditioning. When he shows up at a training camp, he's ready to go, and he knows how to prepare himself. The amount of work that he's gotten in previous training camps — it'll be different, again, whenever we get in because he'll still be in a semi-rehab state — but I have no concerns about him [and his] physical conditioning."
Settles that.
Things are no less clear-cut on the other points. Roethlisberger, who is returning from a season-ending elbow injury after playing just six quarters in 2019, is expected to be ready to go for the Steelers' Sept. 14 Monday Night Football season opener against the Giants. And when he takes the field, that year off might produce more gold than rust.
"We're even more comfortable, really, believing Ben will come out of this in a more healthy manner, maybe even as a better player," Colbert said. "Sometimes you take a full year off, sure there'll be some rust, but with his years of experience, that won't be too big an issue once he gets up and running in a practice setting. But, you know, he'll have a year of rest on his legs, on his body, and we're comfortable that his arm will recover. He'll be who he was and maybe even more than [that]."
Thus far, Roethlisberger's hit every milestone in his recovery, giving little reason to doubt his readiness come showtime. But he is 38 years old. And the human body is unpredictable. To that end, Colbert's stuck with a combination of Rudolph and Hodges — who went 5-3 and 3-3 as starters, respectively, filling in for Roethlisberger last year — at the backup quarterback position, passing on free agency or the NFL Draft to add another arm into the mix.
That's just how he likes it, too.
"Look, throughout Ben's career, this whole situation has changed, and I've spoken about it," Colbert said. "When Ben was a young player, we chose to have more experienced players behind him. As he matured and moved along in his career, we always wanted to have a young, ascending player. And we've done that with Landry Jones and Joshua Dobbs and now with [Mason Rudolph] ... But in Mason's situation, we felt good about what he was able to do last year, as well as Devlin.
"Those two guys were put in a tough situation, and they made the best of what they could do. And again, we talk about Mason's record was 5-3 and Devlin's was 3-3 as starters. Could we have won more? Could we have won less? Sure ... We were comfortable with it last year, and we're comfortable with it this year."
For now, it's all about growth for both Rudolph and Hodges in Colbert's eyes, and they each may even receive a little extra competition in the form of Paxton Lynch, who the Steelers added to their practice squad in mid-September last year.
"We hope that Mason and Devlin continue to show some improvement, as well as a guy like Paxton Lynch, who has first-round talent and we didn't really get to see him because we got him later last year," Colbert said.
In this discussion, though, it all comes back to Roethlisberger. Colbert recognizes that No. 7 taking the field at all at this stage of his career can't be taken for granted.
"I know that he could easily walk away from this game as well," Colbert said. "But he's choosing to continue to play it because I still think he really wants to prove and do more. To me, the guy's got Hall of Fame credentials as he stands today, but that's not enough for him. And, to me, that's a mark of greatness."
