Byron Leftwich will start

[Hawaii 5-0]

Steelers to play to Leftwich’s strengths

By Mark Kaboly
Published: Thursday, November 15, 2012

There’s probably not a quarterback better equipped to run Todd Haley’s “dink-and-dunk” offense than Charlie Batch.

So when Ben Roethlisberger went down with a shoulder/rib injury, forcing him out of the lineup for the foreseeable future, including Sunday night’s game against Baltimore, it created a buzz that the 37-year-old Batch should leapfrog the strong-armed Byron Leftwich and become the starter in Haley’s short-passing attack.

That would merit consideration if there was, in fact, a “Haley” offense.

Haley reiterated Thursday that his is not a scheme-oriented offense; he instead plays to the strengths of his personnel.

Haley showed that as a coordinator in Arizona and as head coach in Kansas City. Now he will have a chance to will prepare a game plan around Leftwich, who hasn’t started a game in more than three years.

Translation: The dink-and-dunk will be scaled back for at least a couple weeks.

“When I say it is not a system, it is not a system,” Haley said. “It is the way I’ve been brought up to coach, and the way you maximize the players you have is you better play to their strengths. So when Byron is in there, we’re going to do our best to cater to his strengths.”

A day earlier, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin downplayed any drastic changes with the game plan, calling the changes subtle.

“It isn’t anything that is complex,” Tomlin said.

There will be changes with Leftwich in the starting lineup, and it’s logical to believe one of those changes would involve taking more shots downfield.

Nearly 60 percent of Roethlisberger’s attempts this year have been thrown for fewer than 10 yards down the field — nearly 10 percent less than a year ago.

That style would seem to play better to Batch’s strengths than Leftwich’s, but the coaching staff never hesitated in naming Leftwich as Roethlisberger’s replacement.

“You’re always disappointed that way. Any time you hope to have a chance to play, you want to be that guy,” Batch said. “Unfortunately for me right now, I’m not.”

Batch has been inactive for all nine games this year.

“But now I do have an opportunity to dress, and that means it’s a lot better than being the third quarterback, being inactive, not dressed because (then) you have no chance of going into the game,” Batch said.

Batch has proved more recently than Leftwich that’s he is able to play winning football on short notice. Batch is 5-2 filling in for Roethlisberger since 2005. Leftwich has never started a game for the Steelers but relieved Roethlisberger in 2008 and defeated Washington.

Unlike those games, the coaching staff has a full week to prepare a game plan specific to Leftwich’s strengths.

“We’re going to do our best to cater to Byron’s strengths as opposed to trying to force square pegs into round holes,” Haley said. “He can’t go out there trying to be Ben. He needs to go out there and be Byron.”

http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/...#ixzz2CMIxgIhg

[BlaZeQuietly]

is brown playing?

[steelfury02]

good question - steelers.com report sounded a little more optimistic than it had in the past few days - still questionable though, correct?

[Hawaii 5-0]

Originally Posted by BlaZeQuietly

is brown playing?

I don't think so.

[SteelersCanada]

It's great that there's a general trust and respect for Byron in here. Sure, there's a couple guys worried about what he can do and it's warranted, but the Steelers seem to have respect for him and think he can do this. If teams weren't worried about his wind-up, he would have been a starter in the NFL and quite possibly could be one right now.

I'd love for someone to point me to a team that has a better second string quarterback right now. It's ok, I'll wait.

[stb_steeler]

Originally Posted by SteelersCanada

It's great that there's a general trust and respect for Byron in here. Sure, there's a couple guys worried about what he can do and it's warranted, but the Steelers seem to have respect for him and think he can do this. If teams weren't worried about his wind-up, he would have been a starter in the NFL and quite possibly could be one right now.

I'd love for someone to point me to a team that has a better second string quarterback right now. It's ok, I'll wait.

Well most of the talkin heads on TNF picked Byron to be their back up out of 9ers, eagles, bears or steelers. I can agree with them on this!

[SteelersCanada]

Originally Posted by stb_steeler

Well most of the talkin heads on TNF picked Byron to be their back up out of 9ers, eagles, bears or steelers. I can agree with them on this!

They usually say smart things, it's just Warren Sapp that opens his mouth for a reaction. I mean, in this case the only quarterback you could make an argument to start over Byron (and it'd be a weak argument) is Campbell.

[stb_steeler]

Bad word........SAPP

[stb_steeler]

Sapps a space filler on the show.....

[teegre]

Originally Posted by SteelersCanada

It's great that there's a general trust and respect for Byron in here. Sure, there's a couple guys worried about what he can do and it's warranted, but the Steelers seem to have respect for him and think he can do this. If teams weren't worried about his wind-up, he would have been a starter in the NFL and quite possibly could be one right now.

I'd love for someone to point me to a team that has a better second string quarterback right now. It's ok, I'll wait.

The only ones who even come close would be

Kyle Orton... eh.

Matt Moore... hmmm...

TJ. Yates played well last year.

Matt Hasselbeck is pretty good.

SUMMATION:
I'll stick with Byron.