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90 In 30: Steelers 2021 Training Camp Preview Series: Quincy Roche, Ben Roethlisberger, Mason Rudolph

By Dave Bryan

Posted on July 13, 2021 at 2:16 pm

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2021 offseason practices concluded last week. Next up for the team is their annual training camp, which should get underway in the latter part of July. Ahead of training camp, we will preview the team’s 90-man roster three players at a time for you as part of a 30-post series. This Steelers 90-man roster preview that includes outlooks for each player goes alphabetically by last name to make it easy to follow along with.

The next three players we will preview today are Quincy Roche, Ben Roethlisberger, and Mason Rudolph.

OLB Quincy Roche — Roche was one of the Steelers 2021 draft picks as the Miami product by way of Temple was selected in the sixth round this year. Roche measured in at his pro day at 6025, 245-pounds with 32 1/4-inch arms and 9 1/4-inch hands. He ran his 40-yard dash in 4.69-seconds and did 23 reps on the bench. He also had a 32 1/2-inch vertical and a broad jump of 9’11”. Roche had 30.5 career sacks in college, 54 career tackles for a loss, eight career forced fumbles. He played his first three years at Temple before transferring to Miami for the 2020 season.

Outlook: Roche is one of those classic tweener edge rusher players that the Steelers like and he wound up being selected a little later than most thought he would be. During training camp and the preseason, Roche will battle to make the Steelers 53-man roster as a backup outside linebacker and special teams contributor. He’s most likely penciled in as fourth on the Steelers outside linebacker depth chart entering training camp and that should have him inside the proverbial roster bubble. Should the Steelers add another outside linebacker with more experience in the coming weeks, Roche could find himself needing some help when it comes to 53-man roster inclusion. At worst, Roche would likely start the 2021 regular season on the Steelers practice squad.

QB Ben Roethlisberger — Roethlisberger returned from his 2019 season-ending elbow injury in 2020 and initially led the Steelers to an 11-0 start. The veteran quarterback ended the 2020 season having completed 399 of his 608 total passes for 3,803 yards with 33 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He also threw for over 500 yards in the Steelers lone playoff game, a loss to the Cleveland Browns. Roethlisberger’s deep and midrange passing stats weren’t great in 2020 and they were made even worse because the team led the NFL in drops. His average yards per depth of completion stat was quite miserable as well. Roethlisberger got the football out very quickly in 2020, on average and that led to him being sacked just 13 times all season. Roethlisberger took a $5 million cut in pay for 2021 earlier in the offseason to help the team out.

Outlook: Roethlisberger enters his 18th NFL season with a strong likelihood that it will be his last. He’s now nearly two full years removed from the elbow injury he suffered that cost him most of the 2019 season. The Steelers veteran quarterback is expected to lean heavily on the running game in 2021 now that the team has revamped their offensive line and addressed the running back position in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft. We could see Roethlisberger play under center more in 2021, use play action more and even line up in the pistol more now that Matt Canada is installed as the new offensive coordinator. Roethlisberger needs to see an increase in his deep pass completions in 2021 and register a higher average depth of completion as well if the Steelers offense wants to hold up their end of things on a consistent basis during the season.

QB Mason Rudolph — Last season, Rudolph, who was originally selected in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft by the Steelers, completed 25 of his 43 total pass attempts for 324 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Most of his 2020 playing time came in the team’s meaningless regular season finale. He played a total of 79 offensive snaps in 2020 and appeared in five games. The Steelers signed Rudolph to one-year extension ahead of the 2021 NFL Draft taking place.

Outlook: As things stand a few weeks out from the start of training camp, Rudolph is slated to be the primary backup to Roethlisberger throughout the 2021 season. The only way Rudolph winds up falling to third on the quarterback depth chart would be if he has a horrible training camp and an even worse preseason. The Steelers gave Rudolph a one-year extension this offseason and that speaks volumes. Even so, the hope is that Rudolph only needs to play sparingly in 2021 with most of his snaps coming late in games that the Steelers are winning big.

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