Ben Roethlisberger has landed himself on the Covid list. He needs to be symptom free, with two negative tests 24 hours apart to play Sunday night. Mike Tomlin said on Tuesday that the Steelers are preparing for Sunday night against the Los Angeles Chargers as if Mason Rudolph was going to take the helm.
Yikes.
In his 11 career starts, Mason Rudolph has never scored more than 18 fantasy points. As an NFL quarterback, he has performed admirably on occasion, and led the Steelers to some wins. However in Week 11 of the 2021 fantasy football season, with the potential of Rudolph starting again, what do we do with our Steelers players?
Roethlisberger/Rudolph
I hope that you weren’t planning on starting either of these quarterbacks in 1QB redraft leagues. Just in case you were, this is easy. Do not start, or roster, either of them.
The Steelers and Chargers play in the Sunday Night game. The last thing I want to do is be unsure about my QB start all day on Sunday. I would instead look to pick up Justin Fields, Cam Newton, Mac Jones, or Daniel Jones. All are widely available and provide more upside than the Steelers QBs.
Najee Harris
Another easy decision. Start Najee Harris. He has been great all year, and a change at QB won’t lower his value. The Steelers love to feed Harris the ball. Mason Rudolph likes to get the ball out quickly to his first reads. Couple all of that with the Chargers having a bottom-10 run defense, and I expect Najee to continue to score for you this week.
The Wide Recievers
Chase Claypool is set to practice on Wednesday, and may play Sunday night. This year when starting, he has seen significantly less targets than Diontae Johnson. While we have seen Mason Rudolph connect with Claypool in a big way last season, I would hate to start him Sunday night. If you have him on your bench, you have already found other options to start, stick with those.
Diontae on the other hand, saw 13 targets and caught seven passes. That was in last week’s tie against the Lions in the #WorstViewingExperienceOfMyLife. I am starting Diontae Johnson happily as a low end WR2, solid Flex play.
Don’t start any other Steelers Receivers. They are not reliable.
Pat Freiermuth
This is the biggest question mark for me. I was fully on board starting Pat Freiermuth every week as my tight end while Ben was throwing him the ball. While Mason Rudolph still targeted him nine times last week, I do not feel comfortable starting a rookie tight end with a back up quarterback.
However, if Ben plays Sunday night I will happily start Freiermuth. If I had him in my lineup already, I would look to replace a bench player to pick up Cole Kmet, CJ Uzomah, Tyler Conklin, or Dan Arnold. These are some widely available tight ends who could be beneficial streaming options. You can always decide to wait and make a start decision after the Steelers announce who their QB will be.
