Leftwich, Culpepper land in Pittsburgh

When Charlie Batch got hurt it made sense that the Pittsburgh Steelers would bring on board one of the veteran quarterbacks left on the free agent market. But signing both Daunte Culpepper and Byron Leftwich had to be a bit of a surprise.

With Ben Roethlisberger firmly established as the starter in Pittsburgh it’s unlikely the Steelers will head into the season with both veterans. They also have rookies Mike Potts and Dennis Dixon on the roster. My money would be on Leftwich – he’s younger and he’s shown more competence than Culpepper during the last couple years – Daunte has never fully made it back from his knee injury a couple years back.

Batch is likely out for a month to six weeks. The one upside for both guys is the opportunity to get into camp gives them an opportunity to showcase themselves in preseason game action – giving them a much better chance to be in uniform somewhere on opening day than they had while they were sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring.

EDIT: According to the folks at Sports Illustrated only Leftwich was signed – Culpepper also worked out, but the Steelers didn’t offer him a deal. Oops.