Mason Rudolph Gives Steelers Best Shot
PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin continued to handle his quarterback situation delicately in the wake of another strong performance from former third-stringer Mason Rudolph. Tomlin declined to give any more details about Kenny Pickett's recovery from an ankle injury and kept his praise for Rudolph brief.
"You know, we'll talk about that next week," Tomlin said of the Steelers' quarterback situation. "Right now, we're just appreciative of the victory and we'll give you guys something to buzz about here for the next 24 [hours] or so."
Tomlin recognizes how eager the public is to sink their teeth into a quarterback controversy, but won't let them, and is instead riding the cover Pickett's injury provides him to stick with the hot hand. As Pickett progresses and Rudolph continues to shine, a decision looms but the right choice is clear - Rudolph gives the Steelers the best shot at beating the Ravens next week and, if fate allows, making a run in the playoffs. He has, more than anyone else in that room, earned the right to keep playing.
Rudolph has completed 68.6% of his 51 passing attempts for 564 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions in his two starts, both of which were critical wins over the Bengals and Seahawks as the Steelers try to salvage a precarious spot in the AFC playoff picture.
There is no guarantee that Rudolph will continue to play at this level in perpetuity but the fact remains that he is doing thing no Steelers quarterback has done since the back end of Ben Roethlisberger's heyday.
After a 18-of-24, 274-yard passing day in the 30-23 win against Seattle, Rudolph is the first Steelers quarterback to throw for 270 or more yards in back-to-back games since Roethlisberger did it in 2021 and he's also the first Steelers signal-caller with a passer rating of 112 or more in consecutive contests since - you guessed it - Roethlisberger in 2016.
By comparison, Pickett has thrown for more than 270 yards just twice in his career while owning a 1-1 record and 0-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio in those contests. The highest single-game passer rating of Pickett's career is the 108.5 mark he posted against the Raiders earlier this year.
Maybe Pickett would have played just as well against competition like the Bengals and Seahawks, who ranked 20th and 22nd, respectively, in the NFL in total defense and that's before losing bodies to injuries. But hypotheticals can only get you so far. Pickett has played in 25 games and started 24 - he's gotten plenty of chances to prove himself and still, few if any of his performances have looked at all similar to what Rudolph's done the past two weeks.
It's fair to point out that the Steelers are working with a new offensive coordinator now than Pickett has for most of his career and over the past two games, they've gotten better contributions from the rest of the offense as well. But Rudolph has taken the potential that has laid dormant inside this undeniably talented, but still off-beat Steelers offense and turned it into points and wins.
Those facts are undeniable - something is working with Rudolph at the controls that wasn't when Pickett was in the same position.
The road is as narrow as possible, as Tomlin would say, for the Steelers right now and they can't afford to try and fix something that isn't broken right now. They will walk into Baltimore next week needing a win and much more help to keep their season alive and one Steelers quarterback has proven he's given them the best chance to win.
"Just in the early portions of the week, we didn’t know what [Pickett's] availability might be," Tomlin said following the win over the Seahawks. "We allocated reps accordingly. And so we’ll see what next week holds."
But waiting until next week isn't necessary because Pickett's health isn't relevant. In fact, this has much more to do with his counterpart than Pickett himself. If the question is "Who gives Pittsburgh the best chance of winning right now?" the answer is unquestionably Rudolph and it's because of Rudolph's own merit, not necessarily any of Pickett's deficiencies.
Keeping Rudolph in as the starter doesn't mean the Steelers need to disregard Pickett's potential entirely, but future decisions should be saved for the future. Right now, with their backs firmly against the wall, Rudolph gives the Steelers the best chance of pulling a miraculous playoff berth out of nowhere and it would be foolish to do anything but back him as the team's unequivocal starter.
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