The Steelers placed quarterback Mason Rudolph on injured reserve Tuesday morning, leaving the Steelers with two quarterbacks on the 53-man roster for the final game of the regular season against the Ravens.
Coach Mike Tomlin also announced Tuesday that starting center Maurkice Pouncey is out for the Ravens game after he injured his knee in the loss to the Jets and that starting running back James Conner’s availability is “in question” due to a quad injury that forced him to exit the Jets game early. Tomlin did not disclose the nature of Pouncey’s knee injury or if it would keep him out if the Steelers advance to the playoffs.
Veteran B.J. Finney will start at center against Baltimore. J.C. Hassenauer was signed to the 53-man roster to be the backup center.
Rookie Devlin Hodges will start for the sixth time this season, and Paxton Lynch, the No. 26 overall pick in the 2016 draft, will be his backup. Hodges is 3-2 as a starter this season, but he’s coming off back-to-back losses that have put the Steelers on the brink of playoff elimination.
Lynch was first signed to the practice squad in September, and he’s been on the 53-man roster since the middle of October. But don’t look for Tomlin to rush Lynch into the game if Hodges struggles against the Ravens on Sunday.
“He’s got a lot of pedigree,” Tomlin said. “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 we acquired him and the nature of how you have to work to prepare for games. We acquired him after the season started. We had two young quarterbacks in front of him. We’ve been very thoughtful about making sure they got significant amount of reps.
“Obviously, we’ll work Paxton some this week. But what he has done to this point does not provide a great deal of comfort for him or for us because of what I just mentioned.”
So it’s all on Hodges, the rookie undrafted free agent, who will try to keep the Steelers’ playoff hopes alive Sunday afternoon against the top seed in the AFC playoffs. He’s thrown six interceptions in the past two games, and Tomlin said those mistakes have cost the Steelers in losses to the Jets and Bills.
“It’s very specific how we have to engineer victory,” Tomlin said. “Taking care of the football is such a significant component of that. We haven’t taken care of it the past two weeks. We understand that. We understand the consequences of not taking care of the football. The turnover ratio is a big component of our play. The past two weeks it’s been a negative component for us. We’ll work to minimize negativity.”
Rudolph injured his shoulder in the 16-10 loss to the Jets. He finished his second NFL season with a 5-3 record as a starter. He completed 62% of his passes and threw 13 touchdown passes and nine interceptions.
The Steelers made two more moves on Tuesday, signing former Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett and safety Tray Matthews to the practice squad.
Ray Fittipaldo: rfittipaldo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @rayfitt1.
First Published: December 24, 2019, 3:02 p.m.
Updated: December 24, 2019, 5:51 p.m.