Though things are always subject to change, analyst Jason La Canfora doesn’t see much of a trade market for QB Mason Rudolph. He said as much in a recent interview with Pittsburgh -based station 93.7 The Fan Thursday.
“I don’t think it’s robust,” La Canfora said. “Obviously, injuries are a factor in this game and he’s started some games in the NFL.”
Rudolph appears to be tracking as the odd man out in the Steelers’ QB room, squished between Mitch Trubisky and Kenny Pickett. Signed to a one-year extension last year, he’s set to be a free agent after the 2022 season and lacks substantial value to Pittsburgh. The rest of the NFL likely doesn’t think too highly of him, either.
But as La Canfora mentions, injuries could increase his trade value. Some team around the league is likely to lose their QB during training camp, creating a need and a demand. Jacksonville has already seen an injury during OTAs. Rudolph won’t fetch a high return due to his talent, production, and expiring contract, but it’s possible he nets the team a late-round pick. After all, this is a Steelers team that got a fifth-round pick out of Josh Dobbs.
“I’m old enough to remember Sam Bradford being traded for a first round pick, Now, I’m not saying you’re ever going to get anything close to that for Mason Rudolph, but could a situation emerge where a team is in a quarterback plight and you end up getting, I don’t know, a five instead of whatever?”
Should Rudolph be moved, it won’t come until later in the summer. Pittsburgh will head into camp next month to evaluate their group and protect themselves in case of injury. Two weeks after trading Dobbs in 2019, Ben Roethlisberger was lost for the season, leading to a revolving door at QB. And other teams will have to go through practices and games to potentially have an injury at the position.
Still, La Canfora doesn’t see teams having a tremendous amount of interest.
“But I don’t think there’s a whole lot of interested parties right now.”
Pittsburgh could always choose to keep Rudolph on the roster as the team’s most tenured option. Rudolph probably wouldn’t prefer it that way but he has little leverage in the situation, even knowing Mike Tomlin’s “volunteers, not hostages” motto.
