The Steelers have the preseason’s best backup quarterback battle

Ben Roethlisberger isn’t injury prone. Given the amount of hits he absorbs every season, he might just be the league’s most durable player.

But as he ages into his late 30s, he’s no longer a lock to play all 16 games in the regular season. That means the Pittsburgh Steelers have one of the most important backup quarterback positions in the NFL — and they’ve got three players battling for that spot in the 2018 preseason.

Roethlisberger has missed at least one game in each of the last three seasons, turning starting duties over to an aging Michael Vick and former fourth-round pick Landry Jones in that span. Those backup quarterbacks went 4-3 in games where Roethlisberger didn’t play — not bad, but their 57.1 percent win rate was lower than the starter’s 73.2 percent mark (30-11) over the same span.

Pittsburgh has put in work to fix this problem. The past two drafts have brought Joshua Dobbs (a fourth-round pick in 2017) and Mason Rudolph (a third-round pick in 2018) into the fold to serve as problem solvers in both the present and the future. In the process they created another problem — having to figure who stays and who goes from this year’s depth chart.

Some NFL teams keep three quarterbacks on their roster. Most keep two, sometimes with a third option stashed on the practice squad. Pittsburgh currently has four quarterbacks, none of whom are realistic practice squad candidates. At least one of the team’s quarterbacks is getting cut.

It won’t be Roethlisberger. Giving up on Rudolph months after spending a third-round pick on him is extremely unlikely. The most likely choice is either Jones or Dobbs.

Jones has been a useful backup the past three seasons, but its clear the franchise has no expectation that he’ll be the team’s quarterback of the future — if it did, it wouldn’t have spent draft capital on passers in back-to-back drafts. He’s got too much experience to slide to the practice squad, but just enough to make himself attractive to other teams.

The five-year veteran is 3-2 as a starter, but somehow all three of those wins came over the Browns — and in one, he only attempted four passes before being replaced by a returning Roethlisberger. He threw for 281 yards against the Patriots in 2016, but needed 47 attempts to get there.

Despite those flaws, he’s also got a career 86.2 passer rating, which is higher than current backups and spot starters like Mike Glennon, Josh McCown, Brandon Weeden, and even Blake Bortles. There’s a place for him in the league, and he’ll find a spot elsewhere if the Steelers release him — possibly even with a division rival, since the Bengals could use an established, non-Matt Barkley backup behind Andy Dalton.

That makes it difficult to release Jones, but ...

Dobbs was a flier pick out of the University of Tennessee in 2017, and the Steelers haven’t been clear on what his role is with the club over the last two seasons. He earned the opportunity to start a three of Pittsburgh’s preseason games in ‘17 and was solid against the Panthers, but didn’t show enough during the regular season to earn a single pass as a rookie. The club even sat him through a meaningless Week 17 win over the Browns where Roethlisberger took the week off, opting for four quarters of Jones instead.

That put his roster spot in jeopardy in 2018, even if he’s just six months older than Rudolph. A solid start to the preseason will make the Steelers’ decision a bit tougher. Through two games, Dobbs has completed 21 of his 31 passes for 283 yards and three touchdowns — good for a 101.9 quarterback rating, albeit against second- and third-string defenses. That’s better than Rudolph, who has completed just 50 percent of his attempts and been sacked on more than 17 percent of his dropbacks as a pro.

While his stats suggest Dobbs has earned a spot on the main roster, they don’t paint a complete picture of his play. He struggles with his decision making in the pocket, scrambling well but occasionally blowing up his own plays by bailing on his blockers. More importantly, he struggles to identify coverage, leading to five interceptions in six preseason games, including a pick-six against the Packers last week. That’s a flaw he’s struggled to overcome since his days with the Volunteers — and 2018’s preseason is proof he hasn’t yet grown out of it. It’s clear he’s not a starter.

Still, he’s 23 and has shown off a penchant for playmaking as a pro quarterback. The potential is there if another team has the patience — and the roster spot — to pull it off. The Steelers can cut him and hope he’ll sneak through waivers and back to the practice squad, but it seems unlikely.

The Steelers will have a difficult decision when final rosters are due. At least one of the Jones-Dobbs-Rudolph trio is headed to the waiver wire, and whomever gets cut won’t stay unemployed for long. Jones has too much experience for the practice squad and Dobbs and Rudolph are too young and have too much potential to survive waivers in a quarterback-hungry league.

Pittsburgh has to plan for its present and future, and a wealth of passers — even if they’re flawed, behind Roethlisberger — is a good problem to have. All three players have the ability to win games for the Steelers. Rudolph is the least equipped to handle backup duties in 2018, but he could develop into Roethlisberger’s heir. Jones is pretty close to his ceiling as an NFL quarterback if he hasn’t hit it already, but he’s proven he can beat AFC North teams ...or, at least, the Browns. Dobbs is somewhere in between those two, and it could mean his tenure in western Pennsylvania ends in September.

But no matter who gets cut, Pittsburgh’s loss will be some needy’s team’s gain. If your team needs a backup quarterback, it’ll be worth watching the Steelers’ final two games this preseason.