The Steelers won’t have one of their best players as they play the Bills. But they will keep riding the hot hand at quarterback.
Head coach Mike Tomlin said in his Tuesday press conference that T.J. Watt has been ruled out for the wild card round while Mason Rudolph will start again for Pittsburgh.
Watt’s brother, J.J., noted on Sunday that the Steelers’ edge rusher suffered a Grade 2 sprain and will need a couple of weeks to recover from the injury.
Watt finished the regular season with a league-leading 19.0 sacks. He also registered 19 tackles for loss and 36 quarterback hits.
“Playing without T.J. is significant,” Tomlin said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN. “But we’ve played without a lot of people this year and this is another opportunity to strike a blow for the team.
“It’s going to be a committeed approach. We better strengthen our output in other areas because T.J. is one of a kind.”
As for Rudolph, the Steelers have won each of the last three games with him at quarterback. So, they’ll stick with him instead of turning back to Kenny Pickett, who is healthy after missing time with an ankle injury.
“We’re simply staying with the hot hand and not disrupting the apple cart,” Tomlin said, via Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We’ll continue in that vein.”
Rudolph has completed 74.3 percent of his passes for 719 yards with three touchdowns and no picks this season.