Healthy Leftwich no longer eyeing Pittsburgh exit

Healthy Leftwich no longer eyeing Pittsburgh exit
By WILL GRAVES
AP Sports Writer

LATROBE, Pa. (AP) When he was younger, Byron Leftwich would take a quick scan down NFL rosters and start taking mental notes.

Better than that guy. And that one. And that one. That one too.

Call it youthful arrogance. Call it competitiveness. Whatever it was, the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback had it in abundance.

"I would look at guys all over the league and I felt that I was truly better than them, guys that had starting jobs," Leftwich said.

Lately, however, Leftwich has given up the practice. Go more than five years without winning a start and spend the last two sidelined by injuries like Leftwich has and you stop worrying about where you rank in the pecking order.

Oh, the 32-year-old still believes he can be effective at the top of the depth chart. He's just not willing to give up a good gig to get it.

"If I get an opportunity to go and start somewhere one day, it'll be great," Leftwich said. "But at the same time I love knowing that if I do get a chance to play, I'm going to have a chance to be successful. That's where I'm at in my career."

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im glad he is not our starter but i am thrilled that he is our back up

Agreed...I love having him here as a backup. He seems to have settled in here quite nicely as well.

Glad to see he's gotten his head on straight in terms of where and who he is in the league. And glad he's healthy too. I'm willing to bet that he's needed for a few games this year.

but preseason is not over yet keep your fingers crossed.

I like Lefty as a backup too. He's been solid (when he's healthy) and can be counted on to get us through if Ben is out a couple of games. I wouldn't want to depend on him as a starter for an extended period of time or to get us through the playoffs, but what team does depend on a backup QB to do that?

We can get a few more decent years out of him and start thinking about setting Batch out to pasture soon. He's earned his retirement and we'll have a reliable guy to take his place for a bit.

Now I'd like to see them start to groom a young guy as a #1 or #2 QB in the next year or so that can sit and learn from Ben and Lefty.

How can anyone call Lefty solid as a backup? He has not played due to injury the past two years. And when he does play, he sits back there like a statue and gets sacked like nobody's business. Sorry, I wish the Steelers would find someone else besides Lefty and the geriatric one in Batch. If Ben goes down for any length of time, the Steelers are screwed.

lvsteelersfan wrote:

How can anyone call Lefty solid as a backup? He has not played due to injury the past two years. And when he does play, he sits back there like a statue and gets sacked like nobody's business. Sorry, I wish the Steelers would find someone else besides Lefty and the geriatric one in Batch. If Ben goes down for any length of time, the Steelers are screwed.

I think Lefty is very capable as a backup if he can stay healthy (which of course is the problem). He's a former starter and has experience in the league. Sure I'd rather be grooming a young QB who shows promise, but we don't have that. I could think of plenty of worse options, like the Ravens carrying Curtis Painter. We'll be fine if he can remain on the field if called upon. Hopefully, we won't need to find out at all. That's the best case scenario.

I honestly prefer Batch as the gameday backup, but I have no problem with Leftwich. It's a luxury to have two veterans of their caliber on the ready.

Dodens Grav wrote:

I honestly prefer Batch as the gameday backup, but I have no problem with Leftwich. It's a luxury to have two veterans of their caliber on the ready.

^this^

I like Lefty as backup. I've noticed that for the most part, he is able to roll out of the pocket and make crisp, clean passes, and can see more of the field. IMHO, it is how Lefty plays the game and any OC that knows him would create an offensive gameplan around that. When Lefty came to Tampa, they tried to make him a pocket QB and that's not Lefty.