About an hour ago
Ben Roethlisberger will not be in Sunday’s huddle in Cleveland. Where he will be is on the field of practice this week, on the sideline against the Cleveland Browns and in the ear of Mason Rudolph, while the Pittsburgh Steelers reserve quarterback makes his first start to the season.
With the decision to give Roethlisberger rest for the end of the season at FirstEnergy Stadium, the team’s franchise quarterback will be a spectator while the spotlight shines on Rudolph, whose start coincides with the Steelers’ first trip to Cleveland since the Myles Garrett incident. swinging his helmet in November 2019.
Roethlisberger plans to do everything possible to make Rudolph’s return to Cleveland a success for the third year quarterback – and for the Steelers, who can still win second place in the playoffs under the right circumstances.
“I’ll be here for Mason, for Josh (Dobbs), for whoever,” said Roethlisberger. “Kind of like last year, this is the approach I’m going to take. I never want to step on my feet, but I want to be available for questions, to help, to give my opinion. … I talked to Mason about it. That will be my role this week, and I will do everything I can to answer questions and be the one who can help most in this game ”.
Roethlisberger was a spectator last year, when the Garrett-Rudolph incident happened at the end of the Browns’ 21-7 victory on 14 November. Roethlisberger was only about six weeks removed from surgery on his right elbow that ended his season after six quarters.
Roethlisberger could only watch Garrett from afar hitting Rudolph on the head with the quarterback’s helmet, prompting a skirmish that caused the Browns star to be suspended for the rest of the season.
Asked about the advice he would give Rudolph on how to deal with the rematch, Roethlisberger offered two points of view.
“You can leave it behind and treat yourself like a typical defender who has to have a short-term memory and go out and be like everything that happened last year – there will be a lot of noise about it – put it out of your mind and focus on this year, on this game, on this team ”, he said.
“Or, you can interpret as motivating the fact that you want to go out and put it on them and help them win the football game. It is really how each individual man wants to approach you. I know by talking to Mason and knowing that he wants to go out and win this football game, and he’s going to do everything he can to do that for this team. It’s an incredible opportunity for him to come out and show what he can do. ”
Rudolph is not expected to meet with the media until the end of this week, but coach Mike Tomlin and defensive captain Cameron Heyward said on Wednesday that the Steelers are focused on defeating the Browns and preparing for the postseason instead to repeat the incident 13 months ago.
“We will not continue to insist on a situation that was (in) the past,” said Heyward. “We played games after that. Going forward, if Mason wants to make a name for himself, let’s do it the right way. ”
Tomlin added in a conference call with reporters from Cleveland: “This is so far in our rearview mirror, we can’t see it.”
As Rudolph prepares for the start, Roethlisberger will do the least amount of fieldwork this week while resting for the postseason, although he is aware that the Steelers may face the Browns again when the postseason begins on the 9th weekend. the 10th of January.
“This is the unique feature of this week,” said Roethlisberger. “We don’t know who we can play with. Are you going to watch movies from all the teams or wait until the weekend? That is the million dollar question. Some of the options we know well, Cleveland and Baltimore. ”
Roethlisberger plans to launch passes on Friday and can do individual work with the recipients on a sideline while special team training is taking place.
“What I don’t want to happen is to say, ‘guys, let’s go over here and work on things for the playoffs,'” said Roethlisberger. “We have a game. Guys have to focus. That would be unfair to Mason and the guys playing this week. It’s a fine line to do that, but you still have to try to keep an eye out. I will do my best to try to keep my mind sharp by watching some movies, watching our previous games and things like that. ”
And, of course, he will be focused on Rudolph as well.
“I will watch with a critical eye,” said Roethlisberger. “It’s one of those things where you want to help Mason and help our attack as much as you can, but you are also watching his defense. If I can catch or hear something, I will do everything I can to help win this game ”.
Joe Rutter is a staff writer for the Tribune-Review. You can contact Joe by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .
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Sports | Steelers / NFL