There have been some loud voices among fans who have clamored for the Steelers to give Mason Rudolph a chance to start and see if he can be a potential starter in the future. But that died down during the team's four-game winning streak.
Sunday against the Lions, however, those who wanted to see Rudolph will get their chance.
Ben Roethlisberger tested positive for COVID-19 Saturday and will miss the Steelers' game Sunday at Heinz Field against the Lions (0-8).
That means Rudolph will make his first start of the season and first since throwing for 315 yards and two touchdowns with one interception in last season's regular season finale against the Browns, a game the Steelers lost 24-20 in Cleveland.
It will mark the first action of the season for Rudolph, who is in his fourth season with the Steelers (5-3). Roethlisberger has started all eight games this season, completing 196 of 299 passes for 1,986 yards and 10 touchdowns with four interceptions.
Rudolph, a third-round draft pick in 2018, has started nine games previously -- eight of which came in 2019 when Roethlisberger was lost for the season to an elbow injury. The Steelers are 5-4 in Rudolph's starts, with him completing 61.7 percent of his passes with 15 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions.
Roethlisberger is vaccinated, so all he needs to do is not show any symptoms of the virus and provide two negative tests within a 48-hour period to be brought back on the 53-man roster.
The move of Roethlisberger to the COVID List also means that Dwayne Haskins will be active for the first time this season.
The Steelers will be without two of their top three wide receivers coming into the season, as well. JuJu Smith-Schuster was lost to a shoulder injury last month, while Chase Claypool has been declared inactive for this game because of a toe injury.
Roethlisberger is the second high-profile quarterback to go on the COVID List in the past two weeks. Last week, Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers, who is unvaccinated, tested positive and missed his team's 13-7 loss at Kansas City. Rodgers was activated by the Packers Saturday and will start for Green Bay against the Seahawks.
Recently, Roethlisberger said he wasn't being quite as careful this year as he had been in 2020, when he home-schooled his children and never left his house when he wasn't at work.
"You can't live in a bubble. I felt like we lived in a bubble last year, and it's like, 'Listen, we can't keep doing that,' " Roethlisberger admitted. "Now, I'm not gonna go to a big, crowded place and just see what happens. I’m not gonna take that chance. But no, I just try to live a normal life, and I don’t do much anyway. I’m kind of home all the time."
