Veteran QB Byron Leftwich is taking the first-team snaps with the Steelers during OTAs this week, and that’s nothing new.

Within his report Wednesday, Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted that Dennis Dixon is convinced he  has the same opportunity to win the job as Leftwich, and then offered up an interesting theory: coach Mike Tomlin wants to see if Dixon will compete for the job instead of it being handed to him.

While we contemplate how much of a competition is really going on, Scott Brown of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review suggests the situation will be complicated further if/when Ben Roethlisberger returns and forces Tomlin to divide up the snap pie even more. That could seriously dent Dixon’s chances.

I will say that within the walls at NFL Network, a one-sided consensus has evolved among analysts that Dixon is the best choice as the temporary replacement for Roethlisberger, much of it to do his mobility advantage over Leftwich, a necessity behind the Steelers’ offensive line. At some point in the last several weeks, I’ve heard Solomon Wilcots, Rod Woodson, Jamie Dukes and Michael Lombardi all voice a similarly phrased opinion that they would go with Dixon, which makes one take notice.

We’ll see if Tomlin agrees.

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