PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is not permitted to practice with his team due to contact with COVID-19 positive Vance McDonald, however Steelers offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner said it's not an issue in preparing for the Bengals.
"At this point right now Ben hasn't missed a rep because he doesn't practice on Wednesday," Fichtner said. "There have been various times in his career where he hasn't practiced all week and played successful in games"
Fichtner avoided questions about Ben's health, saying he has been accessible whenever they needed to Zoom or Google or text. Some of those texts coming late at night from Steelers quarterbacks coach Matt Canada.
Even if Roethlisberger cannot play due to his knee injuries or because of a positive coronavirus test, Fichtner says it won't really alter what they do until the day before the game.
"I don't know that there would be a lot of changing," Fichtner said Thursday. "We are always like every week, we meet with the quarterbacks and myself Saturday night. We talk Saturday night about certain things in the game plan that you want to get called, that you like that you feel very comfortable with."
"Any time backups will play away from plan, any week whether it be Mason [Rudolph] or Josh [Dobbs] and I think back to Charlie Batch and all the other quarterbacks, they always had a handful of things they really feel comfortable with. You have to sort them and have the thought process of this play, this play, this play, this play. I like this play. I haven't gotten that feel for that rep. I don't feel as comfortable with it maybe like Ben would, so put it on the backburner."
None of the coaches have committed to Mason Rudolph being the starter if Ben can't go, but it would appear that he would at least get the first opportunity over Josh Dobbs.
"I probably wouldn't get into that, but I think both of them to this point have worked their tails off to put themselves into that conversation," Fichtner said. "You ask them about if they would be confident in any normal scenarios. I know that they didn't have a preseason. They didn't have the opportunity to have a lot of work. That would be the only hesitation I would have."
"The truth is I believe that both of them would do it if it gives us a chance to be successful if it were to happen."
