The Pittsburgh Steelers released Fred Johnson last week in part of a series of four moves to make supplemental exchanges on the 53-man roster to accommodate injuries, promoting quarterback Paxton Lynch from the practice squad after Mason Rudolph suffered a concussion in the previous game. With Devlin Hodges going into Sunday’s contest as the starter, Lynch dressed as his backup.
Technically, they didn’t have to do that. And not just because there is no rule necessitating that you have to have two healthy quarterbacks on your roster. according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rudolph had actually cleared the concussion protocol by the end of the past week, which would mean that he was eligible to be active on Sunday.