When the Pittsburgh Steelers lost quarterback Ben Roethlisberger halfway through the second game of the season, no one knew what was going to happen with the position. What ended up happening was the Steelers turned to Mason Rudolph before benching him and opening up Duck season with Devlin Hodges.
But according to Jordan Heck of Sporting News, this wasn’t Plan A. In an interview with XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck, he admitted the Steelers tried to sign two XFL quarterbacks and was blocked by the league in both cases.
Luck noted the Steelers inquired about signing Landry Jones, who spent his first five NFL seasons backing up Roethlisberger and has five career starts. Luck said the Steelers also checked on the availability of Phillip Walker as a potential scout-team quarterback to simulate Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. Again the XFL declined.
Things all worked out as they should with the Steelers and their quarterback position. If the Steelers had signed Jones they might have just lived with his mediocrity and Hodges would have never gotten his opportunity.
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