Admit it. At some point last season, you had Duck Fever. The excitement around Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Devlin Hodges reached a fever pitch last season amidst all the turmoil this team was in.
But the fairytale went south in a hurry for the undrafted rookie turned NFL starter when he was exposed as a small-school star for which the pro game got too large for in a hurry.
Now with the season over and Ben Roethlisberger likely returning for 2020, where does this leave Hodges and his NFL future?
First the numbers. Hodges appeared in eight games, starting six of them. His record as a starter was 3-3. But don’t misunderstand, if you want to know how Hodges played, these might be the most useless stats at your disposal.
Hodges threw for 1,063 yards, 877 of them in those six starts. That works out to 146 yards per game as a starter. Far and away the worst for any quarterback with six or more starts.
He did, however, complete 62.5 percent of his passes. This was on par with guys like Kyle Allen, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Sam Darnold. It was also better than Tom Brady’s completion percentage.
Now for the bad news. Hodges’ yards per attempt was only 6.6. That number is entirely subpar for an NFL quarterback.
What does this all mean? Honestly, it feels like Hodges’ shortcomings this season were due in part because the Steelers coaches gave him almost no leeway with the offense. And this was even before his four-interception game against the Buffalo Bills. The Steelers seemed to have no confidence in his game and he was continuously checking down either by design or by choice.
Pittsburgh now heads into the offseason with Roethlisberger on the mend, Mason Rudolph as the backup, where does this leave Hodges? Did he do enough to hold onto the No. 3 spot or will his struggles force Pittsburgh to release him and find another quarterback? If the Steelers release him, it’s hard to see another team picking him up.
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