Dixon named Steelers starting quarterback
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has named Dennis Dixon as his starting quarterback for Pittsburgh’s season opener against the Atlanta Falcons on 12 September.
Dixon, the Steelers' fifth round pick in 2008, has started just one regular season game for the black and gold, a 20-17 overtime loss to division rival Baltimore last season.
"It's an honour, obviously. The ultimate for a quarterback is to be the starter," said Dixon. "It's every quarterback's dream to be a starter in the National Football League. My number is called now, and I'm going to have fun with it. I'm happy, but there's a lot of work to be done."
Dixon entered training camp as a long shot to be named Pittsburgh’s signal caller, but the third-year quarterback benefited from a series of on-and-off field incidents.
Steelers star quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was suspended for the first four weeks due to his violation of the NFL’s personal conduct policy.
Pittsburgh re-acquired veteran quarterback Byron Leftwich during the off-season and the former Jacksonville Jaguar was expected to be named the starter during Big Ben’s league mandated absence.
Leftwich outplayed Dixon through pre-season play but sprained his medial collateral ligament last week in Carolina, opening the door for Dixon.
"Dennis has had a very productive pre-season and training camp," Tomlin said. "He went into the training camp as a young guy, second in the pecking order behind Byron Leftwich. He did a nice job and made it extremely competitive. He waged a battle and got some first-team reps in some pre-season games. Largely, we've been very impressed with how he's handled himself in game situations."
Backing up Dixon is 35-year-old Charlie Batch.
Batch, a Steeler since 2002, saw little playing time with Pittsburgh’s first team offence during the pre-season and is viewed as an injury risk.
Dixon will be expected to merely manage the Steelers' offence as Pittsburgh will rely heavily on the ground attack and third-year running-back Rashad Mendenhall during Roethlisberger’s suspension.
Roethlisberger is ineligible to return until the Steelers face the Cleveland Browns on 17 October.
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