Kovacevic: Leave Landry out ... of this QB debate

Cut Landry Jones.

OK, now that I've grabbed the appropriate attention ...

Can we please, please, please dispense with the spectacularly silly concept that the Steelers would or should keep Josh Dobbs and Mason Rudolph at the cost of keeping Jones?

No?

Well, I'll give a real try at rationalizing both sides of what undoubtedly will be the dominant argument after both young QBs acquitted themselves quite well Thursday night at Heinz Field in the annual Meaningless Preseason Finale with the Panthers, a 39-24 result for the home team:

• Pro: Dobbs looked as authoritative as I'd ever seen him, cool under pressure, quick to elude it and generally accurate in completing 8 of 12 passes for 151 yards and a 27-yard touchdown to Tevin Jones, plus his own ambitious, acrobatic run:

Watch that again and again, from where Dobbs squares up eye-to-eye with Carolina's Jermaine Carter Jr. -- he's wearing No. 56 -- to where Dobbs somehow crosses into scoring territory through that guy plus two others. It's damned impressive.

Con: A lot of Carolina's defense will be on the practice squad by week's end.

Pro: Rudolph was just as good as Dobbs, possibly better. He completed 5 of 9 passes for 102 yards and two touchdowns of his own, one with a 24-yard bullet up the middle to Jones, another with the sweetest across-the-body touch to Quadree Henderson. But both paled next to his effort and reaction to his own scoring run, this two-pointer:

Catch that cheap shot by the Panthers' Andre Smith?

Yeah, well, so did Rudolph. A helmet to the chest after he'd taken two steps over the goal line.

"That had me a little ticked off," the kid told me afterward. "But it also feels good when you get the better of it."

You mean like holding onto the ball, then bouncing back up while the ref raises his arms?

"Ha! Right, like that!"

Big smile there. Actually, he couldn't erase that smile all through discussing the topic, including the preposterous flag he received for taunting Smith.

"I antagonized him a little bit too much," Rudolph would say. "I shouldn't have put my team in that spot, but it is what it is."

Still smiling.

"Yeah, we'll see on the tape as if it was as bad as I thought it was. It's all good."

Smiling even more broadly.

Con: Smith, a seventh-round linebacker, might be bagging groceries in Charlotte by week's end.

Pro: They're both 23. The future's bright.

Con: The Steelers' future is now.

Pro: If both stay -- and that'll mean keeping four QBs on the 53-man -- the team's depth at the position could be healthy for years, even after Ben Roethlisberger is done.

Con: To repeat, the Steelers' future is now. Because their Super Bowl contender status is maybe 95 percent offense-based, and that won't be the case much longer. Ben's 36, Antonio Brown's 30, the line's been together half a decade, and Le'Veon Bell is as good as gone after the coming winter. As I've been writing, this is it.

Pro: Landry's nothing special, so he'd be no great loss. Trade him, and the problem's solved.

Con: No, it isn't. It just creates a new problem. I'd be the first to agree that Landry doesn't blow anyone away. But he's in his sixth year in the NFL, he knows the offense as well as Roethlisberger, and he's in by far the best position to help the Steelers in 2018. Which, again, is the year that matters most. Also -- and don't dismiss this -- Landry's got Roethlisberger's trust. They have an exceptional relationship, one which Ben relies upon during games. Talks about it all the time.

Pro: Landry can stay. Just keep four, then.

Con: To what end?

Every spot on the 53-man is precious to the head coach and each positional coach. Keeping Dobbs, in this case, requires eating up a spot the entire season, and he'll never, ever, ever set foot on the field as a No. 4 QB. It's a waste for 2018. It can go to an actual contributor every Sunday. It can go to vital depth at a position with enough flexibility that the player can help in other ways, including special teams. It also can go, down the road, toward going without an injured player for a spell rather than applying any of the injured-reserve labels.

Pro: Eh. I'm running out.

Con: Wonderful. Get a decent draft pick for Dobbs, and go win the Super Bowl. Another Dobbs will come along someday when needed. They aren't scarce.

• I honestly thought Landry got at least a little reprieve from his performance in the regular-season finale in 2017: He beat the Browns, 28-24, and he completed 23 of 27 passes for 239 yards with a TD and a pick. I'm sorry, I don't care if you're facing ... well, the Browns, but getting through an NFL game -- heck, an NFL practice -- with four incompletions out of 27 passes is remarkable.

Guess not.

• Bell hasn't yet told anyone with the Steelers when -- or, for that matter, if -- he'll report. It's been assumed forever that he'd show up the Monday before the opener, but when one national report emerged a couple days ago suggesting he'd do exactly that, Bell tweeted:

don’t believe the fake news, I never said anything to no one...

— Le'Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) August 28, 2018

Yep. We're in the final few days of this non-drama drama, and he's still got to poke the hive.

Here's a multilayered dose of reality:  Every game Bell misses will cost him $852,941. He's due to make $14.5 million this season, which would match to the penny his career NFL earnings to date. He's 26 years old. He's got three, max four, elite years left in him, and I'm probably being generous there. And the more time he'd miss, beginning Monday, the more he'd alienate all the people whose support he'll need where it counts most.

Trust me on that last one. His teammates will turn. Not all of them. Not necessarily in a vocal way. But they'll turn.

Everything about the football culture promotes trust, togetherness. What Bell hopes to achieve beyond the 2018 season is his business, including in his teammates' eyes. But what the Steelers hope to achieve in 2018 is their business. And if he's skipping out on real games, he'll be messing with their business.

He'll show. But if he doesn't -- and one never knows with someone this flighty -- he'll be the one paying the price.

• Only two starters participated for the Steelers, Jon Bostic and Javon Hargrave, and Hargrave showed some serious push from the nose. He never quite connected with the quarterback, but he was sending his man back several steps in getting close "a bunch of times," per his own memory. (And this is one modest individual.)

"That felt good," Hargrave would tell me with a little laugh. "It always does when you're getting into the backfield. I mean, you want to get to the quarterback, but you also want to get back there."

Imagine this defense with interior pressure.

• It's official: The NFL still has no clue as to what constitutes a catch:

That's Damoun Patterson, the camp Cinderella out of Youngstown State, catching a pass from Rudolph, then hitting the grass in the end zone, then losing the ball.

And per the Jesse James Rule, as it should forever be known, that's now a catch. Because there's no need to 'survive the ground,' as refs would explain. You catch the ball, you go down inbounds, play's over.

Tomlin had every cause to challenge, and the officials had zero cause to uphold the call on review.

• Patterson yanked a hamstring in the game, by the way, effectively ending whatever shot he still had left to make it. On the bright side from management's perspective, that virtually guarantees he'll slide through to the practice squad.

• While on the stripes, it couldn't be clearer that roughing the passer will be flagged for the most incidental contact. I mean, there are actually too many examples to illustrate. It's almost every time now.

I get it. QBs are important. Concussions are important.

But I'm watching some of these calls and wondering -- in all seriousness -- if the sack shouldn't just be eliminated from the game. Grab a flag. Cast a halo. Touch with two hands. I'm not even being sarcastic. Because that's clearly the goal now and, further, it's just about the only way this will be officiated consistently.

Tomlin, a member of the NFL's Competition Committee, somewhat sidestepped a general question on rule interpretations after this game: "I think that we’re all going to continually get comfortable with the rule changes and points of emphasis, even into the regular season. That is not unusual, that’s every year. But that’s why they call them rule changes and points of emphasis."

• Nobody, nobody, nobody benefits from the fourth preseason game. Not the NFL. Not the teams. Not the players. Not the fans. Not even the TV networks. Stop it already.

• Finishing 3-1 in preseason doesn't matter, but it definitely doesn't hurt to perform mostly well at a good many positions, as the Steelers did.

I tackle this, with a little help from Cam Heyward, via spoken word:

• Ryan Shazier was at his locker after the game.

I know I'm bringing this up a lot, but there he was, sitting at his usual stall, No. 50, same spot, right there with the rest of the linebackers he'd also joined out in the sideline huddle, jumping right with the rest of them.

He had a blast, too, it was easy to tell, not least of which was this awesome scene in which he was getting AB to mug for the camera, captured by our Matt Sunday:

Look at how his knees are bent, the way he's applying his full body weight to that position. No cane. No assistance.

I have no words for this. Any of it.

To his credit, Sunday's giving that a shot this morning.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY