The decision about whether Ben Roethlisberger will have elbow surgery has been made and it will leave the Steelers without their longtime starter for the rest of the season.
The Steelers announced that an MRI was done on Roethlisberger’s right elbow on Sunday night and that doctors evaluating the results decided that surgery was the best course of action. That surgery is expected to take place this week and the team said that Roethlisberger will miss the remainder of the year as a result.
Roethlisberger signed a two-year extension with the Steelers earlier this year. He’s signed through the 2021 season with cap hits of $33.5 and $31.5 million.
Mason Rudolph took over for Roethlisberger in Sunday’s 28-26 loss to the Seahawks and the 2018 third-round pick is now set to run the offense for the rest of the season. There’s no other quarterback on the 53-man roster after the Steelers traded Josh Dobbs to the Jaguars last week, although they do have Devlin Hodges on their practice squad.
It seems likely that the Steelers will look to make an addition to that group. Landry Jones spent five years backing up Roethlisberger before being cut in 2018, but he signed with the XFL in August. Colin Kaepernick, Matt Cassel, Paxton Lynch, Tom Savage, Brandon Weeden and Brock Oweiler are some other recognizable names available as free agents at the moment.